Just a Game
by Ariza Luca
Summary: When Jesse receives a weird invitation in the mail and responds, she finds herself in a weird game tournament with a lot of people that the reader might recognize... not so much the actual contestants. Be prepared for twists, allies and enemies, and whatever might happen, just remember... it's just a game.
1. You Have Been Invited

Jesse was in the middle of a really good book- _The Petals of a Bloody Rose_ , despite the slightly depressing title, was actually a _superb_ book- and Olivia was tinkering with a new redstone invention when Axel came up the ladder, holding three envelopes that were presumably the mail.

Which, in itself, was new. Jesse and the others rarely _ever_ received mail, being the three weirdos who lived out in the middle of the forest and nowhere near town. So the fact that Axel had any mail at all for them was a surprise in itself.

Jesse _sincerely_ hoped it wasn't a prank like last time, when the Ocelots had stuck a stink bomb in an envelope and then mailed to them. They'd had to air out the treehouse for a solid week.

"I see we have mail," Olivia spoke up as Axel passed out the envelopes to the other two, finally tearing her eyes from her redstone invention. It wasn't anything particularly big- it was more like a smaller version of a daylight sensor or something- but she'd been working on it all day without even looking up from it. The arrival of mail seemed to startle her out of her intense concentration.

"Yep. No return address or sender, either."

Jesse scrutinized the envelope more warily. The lack of a return address or a sender practically screamed that it was a prank waiting to happen...

But Jesse was naturally curious, so she was opening this envelope whether it was a prank or not.

Besides, with the extremely fancy-quality paper that the envelope was made out of, she was highly doubting it was a prank- even the Ocelots wouldn't go so far with the fancy envelope to prank them. Especially not the month before the Endercon Building Competition- knowing them, they were actually in the middle of planning for their newest build.

She could see that her other two friends were having the same thought process. Axel had brought the envelope up to his nose and was cautiously sniffing it, while Olivia was holding the envelope to the sunlight and tilting it from side to side, squinting at it.

Reuben gave Jesse a cheerful squeal, which confirmed to Jesse that it at least wasn't anything like last time's prank, and carefully began to tear open the envelope. Once upon a time, she would've used the letter opener, but then Axel had thrown it out of the window one time in an effort to get rid of a creeper that had been steadily approaching the treehouse.

It had worked, but it had also destroyed the letter opener to the point where it would've been easier to use a blunt stick to open their letters.

Finally, the envelope was open, and Jesse cautiously waited for a second. Nothing much happened. No weird explosion, no sudden smell being released- well, there was the faint scent of vanilla, but that had been in the room ever since Axel had actually brought the envelope in, so she assumed that it was just a scented paper or something- nothing weird at all.

Cautiously, Jesse reached in and carefully shook out the contents of the envelope. Nothing big or heavy was knocked out... just a single, folded sheet of paper.

Jesse looked up at her friends to confirm that they'd gotten the same thing, before unfolding the paper.

 _"You are cordially invited to the first ever annual Game Tournament!_

 _This event lasts for two weeks and invites people of all statuses and areas of expertise, but collaboration and cooperation are a definite needed skill for these games._

 _Details will be provided in full at the event, should you choose to attend._

 _Please mark 'Yes' if you are coming and 'No' if you do not wish to attend._ "

Jesse flipped over the paper, but there was nothing on the back.

She wasn't sure how to feel about this. On one hand, a game tournament sounded like a lot of fun, and two weeks of playing games was definitely preferable to stressing out over their build for that amount of time...

... but on the other hand, who on earth would ever invite THEM to an event? They were nobodies. Literally, the only reason anybody knew of them was because of the fact that they entered the building competition and lost. Every year. Consecutively, for the past _nine_ years.

"... this is weird," Olivia said at last. "No return address... this seems a lot like a prank to me."

"Yeah, but the paper's really nice," Axel said, waving the paper to emphasize his point, "I don't think anyone would waste that much fancy paper just to play a prank on us."

"Yeah, but," Olivia argued, "if this was legit, it would have a return address or something so we could send it to them and let them know. There's no way for us to do that."

Which was true, of course.

After another ten minutes of arguing back and forth- with Axel stubbornly sticking by "maybe they forgot to put on the return address" and "the paper is way too fancy to be a prank", and Olivia arguing that a rich person would easily have the funds to play a prank like that on them and "who forgets to put on the return address?"- Jesse finally decided that they should go and see if anybody else had received the invitation. If they were the only ones who received one, then it probably was a prank, but if they weren't... it was _less_ likely to be a prank.

Maybe it was some sort of scam.

Whatever the case was, this was more interesting than the stuff they'd been doing before the mail had come in.

* * *

"Oh, hey, Petra!"

Jesse was surprised to see Petra at the small coffee shop at the edge of town that she sometimes went to. Usually Petra would disappear without a word and then pop back up in town sometime a month or two later. But here she was, drinking a cup of coffee and having a close look at a piece of paper.

Petra looked up at the sound of her name, lifting her hand in a little wave at Jesse. "Hey, Jesse," she greeted the girl casually. "What's up?"

Jesse pulled out her invitation and held it up, feeling a little self-conscious. She and the others had already asked a couple of other people, and the answers they received were usually blank stares or slight smirks. "Uh, so, today we received an invitation in the mail for a 'Game Tournament', and we've been-"

She didn't get any further than that at the sight of Petra's face, which had suddenly turned slightly pale, the redhead's eyes widening. "You got one too?!" Petra blurted, a little loudly. Half of the coffee shop was now looking at them, but Jesse wasn't paying attention as Petra picked up the piece of paper she'd been scrutinizing earlier. What do you know, surprise surprise, it was the invitation.

"Oh, so Axel, Olivia, and I _weren't_ the only ones to get an invitation," Jesse said, feeling a small rush of relief run through her. She'd honestly been expecting it to be a prank at this point.

"Yeah, I got it this morning..." Petra frowned at the paper, then back up at Jesse. "Do you think it's legit?"

Jesse was extremely pleased that Petra was asking _her_ opinion, of all people, to say the least. "I'm... I dunno. I mean, I can't imagine someone going to the point of getting paper this fancy just to play a prank or scam people..."

"Yeah, this is _definitely_ not cheap paper." Petra gave the paper another quick glance, before glancing back over at Jesse. "I see your point, I don't think even a rich person would go to _these_ lengths... or stoop to the level of scamming people or playing a prank."

Now that Petra said that, she had a point.

Petra checked a nearby clock, and her eyes widened. "Oh boy. I've actually got a meeting with a possible client in a couple minutes, so I'd better run." She scooped up her invitation and put it away, giving Jesse a small smile that was... actually quite friendly. "Well, I'm glad you showed me it. Try to discuss it with you later."

"Oh- sure, okay," Jesse said agreeably, watching the redhead pick up her pickaxe and swing it onto her shoulder in a hurry. "See you later."

"See you."

Petra gave Jesse another quick smile before dashing out the door to the shop, leaving it swinging in her wake.

* * *

Olivia was starting to think she was right.

Whenever she asked anybody who seemed nice enough about it, their face would either turn blank and they'd shrug, or they'd snicker at her and leave. She was about to turn around and head back to the rendezvous point when she spotted Lukas, the leader of the Ocelots, coming out of a nearby building with a slushy.

She debated asking him about the invitation. Whenever the Ocelots and Jesse's team clashed, he never really joined in on bullying Jesse or the others- he just sort of stood there and watched.

I mean, being a bystander wasn't great either, but at least he wasn't actively trying to bully them.

Finally, she decided and walked over to where Lukas was standing with his slushy. "Hey, Lukas!" she called out, instincts screaming at her that she was going to regret this.

Lukas glanced up from where he'd been standing with his slushy. "Oh... hey." He looked a bit startled that she was approaching him, which she honestly couldn't blame him for- their teams got along like a cat and a dog in a rainstorm. "Olivia, right?"

"Yep. Uh, hey, I was wondering, Jesse and Axel and I got this weird invitation today..." Even though Olivia was being quite self-conscious right now (people were starting to stare), she could see the way Lukas's eyes widened. "It was for-"

"A two-week long game tournament?"

Olivia paused, blinking at Lukas. "Well... yeah. Did you get the invitation, too?"

In answer, the blonde reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper, letting it open to reveal, word for word, the exact same invitation that Olivia and the others had received.

Now Olivia was a little more dubious about it being a prank.

A scam, maybe, but not a prank.

If it had been any of the other members of the Ocelots, she might've still been suspicious... but Lukas rarely participated in those pranks. He either stood by and watched it happen, or outright scolded his teammates for pranking the other team. If he'd gotten the invitation, too...

"Well... are you guys thinking about going?"

Olivia blinked, realizing she'd been thinking and just standing there. "Oh... I dunno." She decided to keep the response vague- she wasn't sure why. Her common sense was screaming at her _'no, we're not saying yes, it's dangerous, it could be a scam'..._ but her curiosity was saying something completely different.

' _Maybe it's not a scam._ '

' _Maybe it wouldn't hurt just to see what might happen._ '

Lukas hummed absentmindedly, looking down at the invitation in his hand. "Hmm." He didn't say anything else- just a thoughtful sort of hum.

Olivia didn't know if that was good or not.

* * *

"So... are we just going to mark yes and then... what? Hope that the post office knows where it came from?" Olivia asked, dubiously, later that night. Jesse had decided simply marking 'yes' wasn't too risky- after all, the letters had been mailed directly to them, so the potential scammer knew where they lived. They were planning on taking the letters to the post office tomorrow and then just checking if the post office knew where the original invitations had come from.

Not the most foolproof plan, but Jesse wasn't expecting it to go much farther than finding out no one knew where the invitations originated from and then just tossing the invitations into the trash.

"Yeah, pretty much. Weren't you listening?" Axel gently teased the redstone engineer. She rolled her eyes and smacked his arm in reply.

Reuben snuffled, butting his head against her arm. Jesse looked at her pig, giving him a smile. "Even Reuben agrees that we should try. After all, nothing tried, nothing gained, right?"

Olivia scrunched her face up a little. "I'm pretty sure the actual phrase is different..."

"Eh, same difference," Axel shrugged, and marked 'Yes' on the sheet without another moment's hesitation.

Jesse took up a quill and neatly scratched a check mark into the 'Yes' box, before looking up at Olivia, who was still scrutinizing the paper. "C'mon, Liv- most likely the post office won't know where it came from, we'll toss the invitations into the trash, and nothing bad happens," Jesse reasoned. "There isn't a return address, after all. And fancy paper isn't that rare."

Olivia finally sighed. "You guys are bad influences," she griped playfully, neatly marking 'Yes' as well.

"You love us anyway," Jesse teased back, making Olivia scrunch up her face playfully as she considered the question.

"Hmmm, do I really?" she cheerfully contemplated, before chuckling and setting the paper aside. "Well, now that we've decided on that... we should get to bed. Maybe we can head to the post office earlier in the morning so it's less embarrassing."

Jesse couldn't help but hide a grin at the idea. It actually wasn't a bad idea- it was honestly a bit embarrassing to just traipse into the post office and announce that they wanted to mail a response to a not-on-the-envelope return address. "That's... probably a good idea."

Axel shrugged, tossing the paper onto the table where Olivia had neatly placed her. Miraculously, it did not knock into Olivia's and disrupt her placement. Jesse decided to imitate Olivia and simply set the paper on the table. "Well, hopefully it's not an actual scam or anything."

"Hopefully. This is the most interesting thing to happen in a while," and Axel grinned toothily at them.

Jesse rolled her eyes slightly at him, a grin still tugging at her lips. He just didn't really care about the risks, did he?

Well, not like there _were_ a lot of risks attached to this. But still.

* * *

Jesse rolled to one side and tugged a blanket over her head with a low sigh. The light levels currently streaming into the room made it abundantly clear that it was time to wake up and head out to the post office, like they'd planned... but her bed was so _comfortable_ and she didn't want to get _up_ this early in the morning, not while the sky was mostly down...

Absentmindedly, she reached for Reuben, but her searching hand didn't find the little pig where he'd dozed off to sleep last night.

She rummaged near her feet, eyes still closed as she tried to keep herself in the grasp of sleep.

He wasn't near her feet either.

Now a little concerned- had he fallen off the bed?- Jesse opened her eyes.

She was _not_ greeted with the familiar sight of the treehouse, but instead an almost oppressive black. After a startled moment, Jesse realized that the black was because the room itself was painted black. The light was coming from... well, a light on the ceiling. There was what appeared to be a pair of earbuds on the wall, a gold wristband with a black band running through the center of the gold, and a small sign with words posted on it. The only furniture in the room was the bed she was sitting on and the hooks that the items were hanging on.

There was no sign of Reuben anywhere.

Jesse bolted upright, looking around for the door. "Reuben?" she asked, voice still thick with sleep as she furiously tried to wake herself up. What was going on? Was this a dream?

 _This is a cliche thing to do_ , and she pinched herself.

"Ouch!"

Either she'd just pinched herself in her dream, or this was real. She supposed she could punch the wall and see...

Jesse glanced down at the welt forming on her arm and decided- rather wisely- to not punch the wall.

So not a dream then.

So now she had to find the door.

It took a moment for her eyes to acclimate to the strange blackness of the room- Jesse was used to the wooden and stone walls of the treehouse- but she finally managed to find what looked like a doorknob on the opposite end of the room.

Jesse shoved the blanket aside, getting to her feet and vaguely glad that she'd gone to sleep in her overalls and t-shirt instead of changing into a pair of pajamas, before striding over to the door and trying the handle.

It jiggled, but didn't give.

So the door was locked? From the outside?

Great.

" _Please take the items hanging on the wall and put them on to proceed to the check-in zone._ "

Jesse nearly jumped six feet in the air at hearing the detached, almost robotic voice. As it was, she banged her head against the door and got a rather nasty bump on the forehead.

"Uh, hello?" she called out, uncertainly, when there was no response to the flurry of censored swears she proceeded to deliver.

" _Please take the items hanging on the wall and put them on to proceed to the check-in zone._ "

"Excuse me, where am I? What's going on?"

" _Please take the items hanging on the wall and put them on to proceed to the check-in zone."_

"Okay, good conversation," Jesse mumbled, sarcastically.

" _Please take the items hanging on the wall and put them on to proceed to the check-in zone._ "

... Jesse facepalmed.

* * *

 **A/N: No, this is not a weird version of the Hunger Games, before you ask.**

 **So... I'm starting another fanfiction. This one is kind of a pet project and mostly just for fun, so there's not going to be any angst- instead, there's going to be a lot of fun arguing (FUN arguing) and making friends! Since that's what I write best, haha.**

 **... so yeah.**

 **... any questions? xD**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	2. Check In

Jesse finally looked up and around, frowning slightly. Well, if the only way to leave the room was to grab the earbuds and the gold wristband and put 'em on, she supposed she'd go ahead and do that. It was better than just sitting in the room and trying to have a conversation with the automated voice.

" _Please take the items hanging on the wall_ _–_ "

"Okay! Okay! Yeah, I heard you!" Jesse shouted at the ceiling, trying to make it be quiet. To her slight surprise, the voice cut off right then and there.

Walking over to the items on the wall and taking a closer look, she actually read at the sign hanging next to the items. The handwriting was neat enough to read, yet crooked enough that it was definitely hand-drawn.

Jesse read the sign aloud, just to fill the sudden silence with some sound besides silence. The silence was getting to be eerie.

"'Be aware that when you initially touch the items, there will be a small shock. This should only last a second, but it may startle you into dropping the items, so I suggest not actually holding the items yet and simply touching them to avoid any damage, since if if the items are damaged the door will not open for you. Thank you.'"

The black-haired girl regarded the items with some more suspicion. It _looked_ pretty innocuous to her– just a pair of gold earbuds and a gold wristband with a black, shiny band running through the center of the wristband.

Shrugging, she reached out and carefully bumped her finger into the earbuds first.

"Ouch!"

Jesse started back at the slight shock, even though she'd been expecting it. It was... more intense than she'd been expecting. Jesse had been expecting something like a small static shock. This was more like something shooting into her nerves.

She approached the wristband more warily, finger brushing it gently and allowing the second shock to shoot up her already-slightly-numb fingertips. When the shock didn't persist, Jesse carefully reached out and took ahold of the earbuds.

This time, they didn't shock her, simply coming off the wall with almost no trouble. Jesse regarded the earbuds, which were a little weird– one of them seemed to have a small microphone extending towards her mouth. Shrugging slightly, she pulled her long, black hair back and carefully stuck the earbud into her ear. It went in almost perfectly, and the one with the microphone fit snugly so that the microphone was at her cheek.

Reassured by the lack of a shock, Jesse picked up the wristband with a good deal more confidence and clicked it into place on her wrist. The gold part of the wristband glittered in the light.

Jesse made her way back over to the door and tried the handle. This time, the handle turned without any resistance whatsoever, and Jesse pushed the door open with ease.

She immediately found herself moving carefully into an equally dark hallway with more doors lining the walls. Torches were spread out along the wall, indicating more doors along the hallway, which seemed to stretch on for quite a distance from where Jesse was. When she turned to her right, there was an empty wall except for a sign that read, _Please go to the other end of the hallway._

So she was at the wrong end of the hallway, she supposed.

The door across from hers opened, and Jesse found– to her surprise– herself face to face with a woman with tan skin. Her uniquely styled hair looked like it was bleached blonde, and her eyes were hazel. She was wearing a purple, striped suit, and– to Jesse's even greater surprise– a gold wristband as well.

The other woman gave her an almost mock-scowl when she saw who she was standing across from. "Oh... why am I surprised. Of _course_ my rival was invited, too," she muttered.

Jesse blinked at the other woman, who didn't look _too_ much older than she was.

Well, actually, this woman looked as if she were in her mid-twenties, and considering Jesse wasn't even 18 yet, that was actually a pretty sizeable age gap. But the fact that this woman seemed to think that Jesse was her 'rival' was a little confusing– for one, Jesse was pretty sure she'd never even _met_ the woman.

"I'm... sorry?" she asked, at last, tilting her head to one side and blinking at the other woman. "I... think you've got the wrong person, I've never even met you." Just to be polite, since she was still IMMENSELY confused, she smiled at the other woman politely. "I'm, um, I'm Jesse. Pleased to meet you, Miss...?"

The other woman scoffed, developing Jesse's confusion even further. "Oh, of course. _Classic_ rival." She paused, narrowing her eyes at Jesse, before tilting her own head, eyes narrowing. Since this woman was almost two heads taller than her, Jesse had to tilt her head back to make eye contact. Which made Jesse feel short. Which she was. "You look _much_ younger than when we met earlier today..."

"Oh– did we meet earlier today? Sorry, I... really don't remember." Jesse reached up and rubbed her head awkwardly, cheeks steadily reddening. She really didn't recognize this woman at all.

The other woman regarded Jesse, before sighing and extending her hand. "I'm Stella. Pleased to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too!" and Jesse returned the handshake with a little more zeal than was necessary. "I'm Jess– oh, I already said that."

Stella blinked at Jesse before letting out a little chuckle at that. It was the first sound that wasn't a scoff or an annoyed one from this woman, and it was a nice one. "Yes. Yes, you did. Anyway, do you know what's going on?"

"Uh, nope. I was about to ask you that, actually." Jesse had to reach up and scratch the back of her neck sheepishly. "Well, we're supposed to head that way–" Jesse pointed at the far end of the hallway. "For... something. I don't know."

Stella looked over in that direction, before simply shrugging and beginning to stride towards the far end of the hallway. "I suppose we should head that way, then."

Jesse had to practically scramble to keep up with her, since Stella's legs were surprisingly long. And she was wearing _high heels_ , at least two inches high. How was she walking so quickly without tripping?!

They were about halfway down the hallway, with Jesse practically running after Stella and Stella just walking at a quick clip, when another door abruptly flew open, and Stella screeched to a halt. Jesse nearly walked/ran straight into Stella, but managed to skid to a halt just in the nick of time.

Another person Jesse completely didn't recognize walked out of the room. His dark blue eyes travelled everywhere searchingly, most of his unhealthily pale face almost hidden by his long black hair. Upon spotting the two girls, he scowled slightly, crossing his arms and letting the flash of gold on his wrist peek out at them. "And just who might you two be?" he asked, sharply. His brown robes hung just an inch above the floor, showing scuffed dark shoes, and his almost dingy appearance was interrupted with a single, gleaming dark blue stone embedded in a gold buckle, attached to a belt that was wrapped around his waist.

"Uh–" Jesse was taken back by the sharpness in his voice for a moment.

But only for a moment.

"Hi there! I'm Jesse. This is Stella." She pointed at the much-taller woman next to her (the heels probably helped her height), who gave a little gesture that resembled a wave to the strange man. "And you are...?"

He stared at her for a moment before letting out a very annoyed-sounding sigh, letting his arms fall back to his sides. "Ivor." He didn't offer to shake her hand or wave at her or anything.

Jesse waited for another moment, waiting for him to say anything else, but when he didn't she just shrugged and smiled at him cheerfully. "Okay... well, nice to meet you, Ivor!"

He simply made a sort of grunting sound in response.

Stella finally spoke up, when it was clear that Ivor wasn't going to say anything else and Jesse was at a loss for what else to say, "Well... we were heading this way." She pointed in the direction Jesse and she had been going in. "D'you want to come with us?"

Another grunt.

"Taking that as a yes." Stella immediately resumed her long-legged stride towards the other end of the hallway, and Jesse resumed her slight run. Ivor didn't move as they passed him, but when Jesse glanced back, he'd also started walking behind Jesse, his longer legs keeping pace with the two of them better than Jesse was.

Jesse was jealous of tall people.

The weird little trio continued down the hallway, passing more and more doors that were still shut. The silence in the hallway was quite eerie, and hearing the quiet footsteps echoing through the hallway was not particularly comforting either.

Finally, after a particularly eerie stretch of silence, they reached the far end of the hallway. At the far end of the hallway was a small room, barely enough for Jesse to stand in the center, extend her arms straight out into a 'T' position, and spin around without touching the walls. The room had no furnishings, and was just as black as the previous areas.

The only thing in the room was a sign with a button underneath it.

Stella, slightly surprisingly, was the first person to walk over to this sign, a strange _thunk_ ing sound reaching Jesse's ears as she passed through the threshold of the room. She leaned forward a bit, before reading off of the sign, " _Please press this button to exit the check-in zone._ "

Jesse followed into the room, aware that there was another clicking sound. "The check-in zone...?" she echoed, aware that the voice in her room had said much the same thing.

"Yep." Stella put her hands on her hips and looked around the room as Ivor stepped in as well, another thunking sound... well, sounding. "I guess this little room's the check-in zone... I expected more, honestly."

Jesse just shrugged, while Ivor walked up to the button and regarded it. "So... if we want to exit the check-in zone to... wherever we are," he muttered, "I guess we just..." Without any warning, he reached up and pushed the button, which made an audible clicking noise as he did so. Jesse let out a slightly startled sound.

Did he just... push the button? Without knowing anything about what it did?!

One moment, Ivor was just standing there, staring at the button expectantly. The next, he was suddenly gone, sparks lazily flitting around in the air where he'd been.

Both Stella and Jesse let out astonished exclamations at that. "What– what just happened?!" the blonde woman spluttered, looking startled. "Where'd he go?"

"Where'd who go?"

Jesse jumped at the sudden voice, and so did Stella, because Jesse suddenly found herself toppling over with Stella on top of her, Stella having knocked herself off-balance when she'd jumped and therefore knocking herself to the floor. And since she was pretty much right next to Jesse, she also succeeded in knocking the much-shorter female down as well.

A few moments of confusion ensued as they tried to get back up, with Jesse apologizing furiously (for some reason) and Stella apologizing herself, and then Stella tried to get up while Jesse did at the same time and Stella stepped on Jesse's ankle with her high-heel, and then Jesse almost knocked Stella over– when, in short, the two of them finally managed to get to an upright position, they looked up to see–

"Um..." A woman with shoulder-length blue hair was blinking at them. Like Ivor, her skin was unhealthily pale, but unlike Ivor, her eyes weren't dark blue– they were almost pure black. She was wearing a strange black-and-red robe (mostly black, with some red accents), and she was regarding the two younger girls with a blank expression on her face.

Jesse absentmindedly noticed that she also had a gold wristband on her wrist.

Finally, she gave them a nod. "Mevia."

Jesse was confused for a second, but then Stella was inclining her head back in Mevia's direction. "I'm Stella."

Oh, Mevia was the woman's name... okay.

"And this is Jesse." Stella gestured at the shorter girl, who gave 'Mevia', apparently, a cheerful little wave. Mevia nodded back at Jesse again, before glancing between the two of them.

"Who is the... 'who' you were just talking about?"

Stella blinked twice. "Who?"

"That's what I'm asking you."

"No, I'm not sure who you're talking about."

"Who is the _who_ you were just referring to?" Mevia repeated, more slowly, as if saying this to someone who was mentally challenged.

"Who is the who–?" Stella began, but Jesse had... sort of deciphered the conversation by this point.

"Ah–" she clapped her hands together a little bit. "We were talking about Ivor, our... acquaintance. He pressed this button–" Jesse reached her arm up to point at the button and felt it click under her finger as she pressed it a little, "and then–"

Suddenly, she wasn't looking at Mevia or Stella, who had both turned to look at the shorter girl quizzically, but standing in a room with a dark floor and black walls. (What was up with all the black, seriously.) On the far wall of where Jesse had appeared– which wasn't that far, to be honest– there was a huge, shiny-looking screen. The room was lined with comfortable-looking couches and a few small tables, along with a few solitary comfortable-looking chairs.

There was also Ivor, who was sitting down on one of the couches and turning to see who it was.

"Oh, you pressed the button." His voice was almost matter-of-fact, without any questioning in it at all.

"Um– yeah." Jesse looked from the black wall to Ivor. "Uh, where are–?"

" _Please be seated for the orientation._ "

Jesse managed to keep her jump under control this time. "Wh–? Seated for the... huh?"

Ivor let out a sigh, talking over the robotic voice as it spoke again. "It said that to me as well. I think we should just take a seat, if they keep insisting." He paused, before shaking his head. "Whoever 'they' are."

Jesse considered this idea, before moving forward and sitting on the couch Ivor was sitting on, although she kept a safe distance between the two– she was a little against just sitting next to random people that she'd just met.

Although she was not against trying to have a conversation with them.

"So... er... how did you get here?" she asked, after a few minutes of extremely awkward silence.

Ivor shrugged. "I went to sleep. Then I woke up in that room that I was in when I met you." His voice was a little sharp still, and basically contained a command in it– something along the lines of _don't talk to me._

"... oh." A short pause. "That happened to me too," she told him, trying to keep the sort-of-a-conversation alive anyway. It seemed less eerie than just sitting in the dark room.

A short grunt from the older man.

... this might be harder than Jesse had thought.

The mostly one-sided, weak little conversation kept starting and stopping, over and over again, as Jesse repeatedly made little tries to talk to Ivor. As weak as the conversation was, Jesse was very relieved when Stella and then Mevia showed up, in short succession. Even though Stella sat a little ways away from Jesse– about two spaces– and Mevia sat by herself in an armchair, at least Jesse didn't feel so isolated.

* * *

( _Stella has checked in._ )

( _Jesse has checked in._ )

( _Ivor has checked in._ )

( _Mevia has checked in_.)

She tilted her head, regarding the wall and letting out a pleasant hum. "Hm, people are waking up already? That was quick."

She paused, drumming her fingers on the desk thoughtfully. "Mostly only the Gold Team, though... and even then, not all of 'em are up..."

A short pause.

"Maybe I should've put in an alarm to wake 'em all up... then again, the hallway would've gotten way too crowded then and that would've been a bit of a mess. Especially with all the different people from all the different... areas." She said 'area' as if it had a different meaning from the dictionary definition. Which it did, in this case.

She brushed a hand through her hair, regarding the computer and drumming her fingers on the table patiently as she kept watching the list of people, check marks next to only four of the names.

Another notification came up with a musical tone, and she glanced at it... before the drumming of her fingers stalled as more and more began to pop in, at a progressively quicker pace.

"Oh, boy. This is... going to be a bit confusing for some people."

Slowly, a smile crept across her face.

"This is definitely going to be fun~"

( _Gabriel has checked in._ )

( _Isa has checked in._ )

( _Cassie Rose has checked in._ )

( _Harper has checked in._ )

( _Nell has checked in._ )

( _Radar has checked in._ )

( _The Warden has checked in._ )

( _Porkchop has checked in._ )

( _Xara has checked in._ )

( _Romeo has checked in._ )

* * *

 **A/N: Ooh! New person who seems to be behind this! And it's not Romeo, lol**

 **This is going to be really confusing for several of these people, since the meeting times seem to be a bit skewed. Also, this is not the full list of characters appearing in the story so far; just some of 'em.**

 **Ooh, by the way, this is your chance to ask questions for things that you may not understand. (I.E. Where is Reuben/this person, why is this happening, etc.). I will answer in the story!**

 **Replies to reviews!**

 **andie: Why not? xD**

 **LunarTheMooncake: Yep xD / No spoilers. xD**

 **homeworkoverload: Never watched Teen Titans, so xD / I always have a sort of schedule, although I deviated last week to upload the first chapter xD**

 **TheAmberShadow: (laughs) / I think I answered your question, haha. xD**

 **CamronXTheXGamer: We'll see!**

 **AquaK13: Nope xD / I never watched Adventure Time so xD / No feels this story, I promise xD Just fun feels xP**

 **Toni42: I ain't saying anything until next chapter xD but glad you like it so far ToniBear**

 **Emily The Avenger: I'M READY TO WRITE THIS STORY xD**

 **Rabbits rule: (chuckles) Not those Games. / He's not in a cage, don't worry.**

 **Alice foreshadow: You'll find out!**

 **RapidSammi: We'll see soon, to both of the first things. / Yes, indeed xD**

 **Welp, that's all for now! See ya next chapter, where some very... interesting things happen. :3**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	3. Introductions

The little 'pop' sound of another person popping into the room sounded, and Jesse turned around to see–

Her eyes widened.

Gabriel the Warrior was staggering a little, looking taken aback by the sudden teleportation or... whatever that was. He blinked in surprise, eyes scanning the room as one hand (Jesse vaguely noticed that he was wearing what seemed to be a cyan-colored wristband, in contrast to her gold)– before his shoulders tensed and his eyes widened. "Ivor?"

The couch creaked as Ivor jerked to his feet, eyes narrowing angrily at the man. " _Gabriel?!_ " he almost growled, making Jesse shrink back away from him in surprise. His expression was suddenly extremely frightening compared to what it had been before. If he'd been intimidating before, he'd suddenly graduated to extremely scary. "What are you doing here?!"

The warrior stammered a moment, looking taken aback, before he strode forward, lit by the glowstone embedded in the floor, eyes narrowing slightly as he walked towards Ivor, "I– I could ask you the same question–!"

 _Pop._

A woman wearing a golden robe over a black dress appeared just behind Gabriel, looking slightly alarmed as she steadied herself. Jesse's eyes automatically gravitated to the wristband, which was a nice red in comparison to her gold-and-red outfit. Her black hair and green eyes bore an almost striking resemblance to Jesse's– in fact, the only reason this woman didn't look remarkably like Jesse was the long bridge of her nose and the green eyeshadow she wore. "Oh, my..."

Mevia blinked, standing up as well. "Isa?"

'Isa' blinked at Mevia, moving forward to get a better look at Mevia. When she was close enough to Mevia that even the dimness in the room left Mevia's appearance unmistakably, well, Mevia's, she came to a stop, blinking in bewilderment. "Mevia...?"

 _Pop._

Now there was a teenage girl with long red hair standing in the room, adjusting her glasses as she glanced around. Her clear green eyes glinted in the dim light in the room, and her dark sweatshirt, dark blue beanie, and shorts almost made her blend into the black walls. Actually, if her hair hadn't been such a vibrant red and her socks been such a bright blue and her wristband been such a deep shade of blue, Jesse would've had trouble spotting her.

Mevia and Isa, who'd both turned to see where the _pop_ had come from, both blinked again. "Cassie?"

'Cassie' tensed, green eyes widening behind the lenses– before her expression turned almost cold, and she straightened up again. "Mevia." She nodded at the gold-robed woman. "Isa."

Both women winced a little bit at the greeting.

Jesse barely had time to wonder why the reaction had been like _that_ when another _pop_ sounded, and a woman with dark skin and brown robes that were a little like Ivor's appeared. Her hair was a shock of white, and her slightly darker hood had a set of black goggles with orange lenses. She appeared, stumbled, and bumped right into Cassie, who spun around and steadied the woman instinctively– and upon realizing who it was, released her again.

Jesse glanced at the wristband automatically– spotting a glint of gold on her wrist.

Ivor blinked at her.

"Harper?" Cassie, Isa, and Mevia asked, at almost exactly the same time.

Harper stared at them in surprise, her gray eyes widening. "What are you three doing here?"

"I'm... not entirely sure about that myself," Isa sighed with a wince, reaching up and rubbing her head. "I went to sleep and woke up... here." And she gestured with her arm in an almost regal fashion, making Jesse want to straighten up.

Harper moved out of the area, eyes roaming the area in slight bewilderment. "Well... that's–"

 _Pop_ _pop pop._

In very rapid succession, a girl with shoulder-length, slightly choppy blonde hair with beads twisted into them and wearing a sort of green and gray jumpsuit appeared– the jumpsuit's legs were rolled up slightly, a beaded bracelet on her ankle– and she barely had time to straighten up when a short young man with darker skin, black hair that was slicked up, a large pair of glasses, and wearing a green suit jacket over a yellow vest with a white shirt and blue tie and dark pants appeared practically on top of her, knocking her forward. Before either of them could recover, a man with a completely bald head, a black-and-purple suit with a purple tie, and this weird gold... thing on top of one of his eyes appeared, again practically on top of them, and proceeded to knock the three of them to the floor.

Jesse winced and hopped to her feet, running over to the heap of people on the floor. "Ouch, that looked like it hurt– you alright?" she asked, reaching down to help them up.

The first to regain his feet was the man with the weird gold thing on his eyes, reaching up with a purple-wristband-clad hand to pull himself to his feet using Jesse's extended hand. "Thank you." When he'd straightened up, he fairly towered over her, as most people did. Jesse had to crane her neck back to make eye contact with him.

"No problem. My name's Jesse. Yours?" she asked him, a little perkily.

He was silent for a moment, considering her words. "You can call me the Warden," he said at last.

Jesse decided not to point out that that was a title and not a name. "Okay– nice to meet you, Warden," she told him politely, giving him a cheerful grin. He nodded in return and backed away to allow the other two to clamber to their feet.

The young man's eyes lit up upon seeing her. "Oh– hi boss– uh, Jesse– what's going on?" he asked, immediately straightening to his full height as if he was expecting her to scold him if he didn't.

"... huh?" Jesse blinked at him in confusion. "I'm... I'm sorry, I don't think we've met." Maybe he meant a different Jesse. Who happened to look like her...? "I'm... well, I'm Jesse. It's nice to meet you!" And she gave him a cheerful smile.

The young man's eager but expectant expression faded to one of confusion. "... huh...?"

"Just go with it." Ivor shot Gabriel a look that was so utterly _venomous_ that Jesse automatically thought that the warrior was lucky that looks couldn't kill. "Something... _extremely_ strange is going on here."

Gabriel crossed his own arms. "I'll say."

The young man stalled for a moment, eyes flickering from Jesse to Ivor back to Jesse, before he took a deep breath and gave her a shy smile, adjusting his glasses and straightening back up. "Well... hi, Jesse. My name's Radar."

Jesse nodded and returned the smile more cheerfully. "Nice to meetcha, Radar. What color's your wristband? We all seem to have different colors– well, I mean, Stella, Mevia, Ivor and I all currently have gold, Gabriel has cyan, the Warden has purple, Isa's got red, Harper's got gold, Cassie's got blue... and yeah." She gestured at each person in the room as she named them.

Radar lifted his hand to check. "Er... mine's also purple."

The Warden actually leaned forward to check the validity of the statement, and Jesse automatically did the same. Radar was telling the truth, his wristband– ignoring the black stripe through the center, all of them had that– was the same shade of purple's as the Warden.

"Huh... okay, that's interesting." Jesse gave a vague nod, before quickly sidestepping Radar to help the blonde girl, who was currently still sprawled on the floor on top of the area that people teleported into (Radar and the Warden quickly backed away to avoid any more sudden teleportations). "Are you okay, miss?"

"Uhh, got a bit banged up, but otherwise I'm totally radical, dude," the blonde grimaced a little as she clambered to her feet, shifting so she wasn't in the area of the teleportation... assuming that's actually what it was. "So, you're Jesse, huh?"

Jesse took a second to respond– she was still trying to decipher the previous statement. "Um... uh, yeah, that's me. Hi." She offered her hand, and the blonde gave her a toothy grin– wide enough for Jesse to notice the chipped canine tooth she had– and shook the offered hand, revealing that her wristband was the same shade of purple as Radar's and the Warden's.

"Gnarly, dude. I'm Nell. It's, like, totally awesome to meet you."

Jesse wasted another second trying to decipher that before deciding to give up and just focus on the parts that she could understand. "Nice to meet you, Nell. It's very nice to meet you too!" she said cheerfully, before pausing. "... I just repeated myself, didn't I?"

Nell gave a cordial chuckle and clapped Jesse on the back. "Nah, it's totally cool, dude, totally get whatcha mean."

 _Pop._

Materializing only inches from Jesse and Nell, a person with very... _interesting_ attire appeared in the room. Jesse blinked as a person with a black-painted, tanned face caught her... him... themselves, almost pitching straight into Jesse. That wasn't the weirdest part of their attire, nor was their tattered deep blue-green robe, and it definitely wasn't the pastel-pink wristband on their right wrist.

No, it was the giant pig... skin that they were wearing. The way the glassy, dead eyes at the pig stared at Jesse made the poor black-haired girl want to hide behind Nell.

The person's head tilted back so that they made eye contact with Jesse, and Jesse felt her shoulders tense at the sight of a pair of bloodred irises meeting her own green ones. This person was...

Okay, not to be rude or anything, but this person was _weird_.

"Uh... hi," Jesse said, just to break the silence and giving the person (she really couldn't tell their gender. They _looked_ female, but they honestly could've been a guy as well) a bright smile. "I'm Jesse."

The person with the pig head blinked at Jesse (no, the pig head didn't blink, thankfully. Just the actual person.) for a moment. Their expression was perfectly blank.

And then they threw their head back and laughed.

And laughed, and laughed, the laughter growing more hysterical and crazy-sounding with each passing second, shoulders shaking and teeth showing as they guffawed. Jesse vaguely noticed that the back molars were slightly rotted.

Nell's expression was still fairly calm, but now it was more guarded as she carefully edged backwards away from the strange person. Radar was backing up so much that he'd actually just backed into one of the chairs, and everyone in the room was just now staring at this weird person.

"The name's Porkchop! Nice ta meetcha, tiny! You're lookin' a little squishy." And Porkchop reached forward and poked Jesse, making the shorter girl shrink back a little in surprise. Porkchop's voice made their gender even less clear, a scratchy, slightly nasally voice issuing from the pig-skin-wearing person. "But that's okay, not much lava here!" And Porkchop started laughing again.

The Warden spoke, his own voice extremely calm. "Sorry, but, ah... are you a female, or a male, or...?"

Porkchop's head suddenly snapped around to face him, the laughter cutting off mid-cackle. The almost insane grin that had been on Porkchop's face had turned into a serious intensity, Porkchop's expression looking so deadly serious that it was actually scarier than the insane laughter. "Who said I had to be either?" Porkchop's voice was still scratchy and nasally, but it now held a menacing undertone.

The Warden just narrowed his eyes at Porkchop. "I never said it had to be either. I was just asking. You know, like _normal people_ do."

Jesse decided it was time to intervene before someone got hit in the face. "Um, so! It's... uh, it's nice to meet you, Porkchop. I, um... your eyes are cool." And she gave Porkchop a nervous smile.

Porkchop's strange smile suddenly returned to their face, and they gave Jesse a huge grin. "Thanks, Squishy!" And they stepped forward, grabbed Jesse and rubbed their hand through her hair energetically.

Well, at least they didn't seem... like a very bad person. Just defensive about being non-binary.

 _Pop_.

Another person appeared in the room, this time looking like a woman. The woman's feet slammed into the floor solidly, and instead of stumbling or falling, she just... landed. Neatly. A wavy, messy nest of dark purple hair hid her face for a moment, an also-purple wristband glinting on her wrist... and then she looked up.

Jesse almost gasped in surprise. It wasn't so much the almost unhealthy skin tone she had, or the sharp angles of her face, or the unnatural thinness to her face, than the woman's intensely staring eyes. They were narrow and sharp, like the rest of her face, and were so dark that Jesse could see herself getting lost in them.

"Who are you people? How did I get here?" The woman's voice was sharp, too. It was almost surprising that she didn't have sharp teeth.

Jesse felt rather than saw everyone's eyes gravitate to her. Even Porkchop. Even Ivor. It was as if everyone was waiting for _her_ to explain the situation. Or at least introduce herself to this kind-of-scary-but-pretty lady.

She managed a pleasant smile. "Uh, hello. I'm Jesse. This is Porkchop–"

Porkchop made a funny little motion that might just have been a salute. Jesse spent about a millisecond wondering if she should ask about it before deciding against it and moving on.

"That's Nell, Radar, the Warden–"

"Oh, trust me," and now the Warden had an angry and yet... almost scared expression on his face as he regarded the purple-haired woman. "We definitely know each other."

If the lady had looked kind of scary before, she had graduated to absolutely terrifying. If Porkchop had looked insane earlier, Xara now looked completely unhinged. And furious. That too. She stepped towards the Warden, gaze practically smoldering with hatred.

Jesse decided to hurry on with it before one of them attacked each other. "Um, so, that's Harper, Cassie, Mevia, Isa, Stella, Ivor, and Gabriel," she rattled off in a single, nervous breath. "We're... not sure how we got here. From what I can _tell_ , so far we all fell asleep in our homes and just... woke up in those little rooms."

Nobody contradicted her, so apparently that was true.

"But, it's... nice to meet you. What's your name?"

The kind-of-scary woman stared at Jesse with a strange look on her face– something of a mix of contempt, sadness, nostalgia (Jesse didn't quite understand why), and confusion. Finally, she gave a gusty sigh. "Xara." She didn't clarify or say anything more– just 'Xara'. From that, Jesse could assume that was her name.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Xara! I... already said that, didn't I."

 _Pop_.

Any response that Xara or any other occupant in the room might've had was cut off by another pop. A young man appeared in the room, staggering as he almost landed flat on his face. He was wearing a gray t-shirt with a v-neck, jeans, and sneakers that matched perfectly with his hair– it was just as red as Cassie Rose's. He had a little goatee, and his face seemed about as sharp and angular as Xara's. (Actually, they were a little softer on him– it was the reason he looked more like a young man than Xara did. He also looked less scary than Xara.)

"Oh, bloody heck, that was actually–" He cut himself off the second he looked up, dark eyes widening in surprise at the occupants in the room.

No, that wasn't quite right... he seemed to be staring right at Xara.

Jesse stole a glance at Xara. To her surprise, Xara was staring back at Romeo.

Her expression was completely blank, although Jesse could see a million emotions racing through her eyes. Hatred, shock, anger, sadness, confusion, another one that might've just been giddiness–

"X-X-X-Xara–?!" the young man blurted, looking completely confused, and more than a little nervous.

Actually, he may have looked vaguely terrified.

" ** _RAAAGH!_** "

With an enraged scream that made Jesse flinch in surprise, Xara threw herself at him. He made a very odd yelping sound as he tried to back away, only to run straight into the wall–

Xara's fist slammed solidly into his shoulder, making him flinch, although it seemed more like it was out of surprise than actual pain. She hit him again, and again, and again, fists pummeling away at his torso.

Jesse thought about interfering, but it didn't look like she was actually attempting to hurt him, and the young man seemed more surprised than injured, so she decided to wait and see.

Finally, with a strangled sort of cry, Xara threw her arms around the young man's neck– it didn't look that hard, considering she was about an inch taller than he was– and proceeded to slam him into the wall tightly, the two of them sliding down the wall with Xara practically squeezing the life out of him, his arms sort of poised around her with his expression still filled with utter shock.

Slowly, he wrapped his arms around her as well, the gold wristband on his wrist glinting slightly in the light as he did so. His expression was still filled with shock, as if he'd been expecting her to _kill_ him.

Xara muttered something that was muffled from her strangle-hug-move that she was currently pulling– it sounded a bit like "you complete freaking idiot." (The 'freaking' may have been something ruder, but Jesse had trained herself to censor out rude language.)

The young man finally tilted his head back, blinking at them all. A glint of recognition showed in his eyes as they roved over the Warden, and, to Jesse's surprise, Jesse. (Seriously, what was with these people knowing her when she didn't know them?)

Jesse finally gave him a slightly confused little smile and a wave. "Hi, I'm Jesse. What's your name?"

Ivor muttered something indistinct behind her. She resisted the urge to check over her shoulder.

The young man blinked twice at her, still looking slightly shell-shocked.

"I'm Romeo."

* * *

 **A/N: Next chapter, some things are actually explained, including the noticeably missing animals. (Benedict, Winslow, Reuben, Lluna...) Get ready!**

 **I am so sorry about the late chapter, I just procrastinated on this thing for an entire week. I promise I won't do that again for a while.**

 **And no, just to clarify, there is no Eggwars, Skywars, or any other Minecraft mini-game. I've only ever played Hide and Seek, and then it was only one round. This is a... different kind of game tournament.**

 **ItzJaiden: Not a mini-game server, but... I guess? xD**

 **LunarTheMooncake: Indeed xD / Indeed! That is made abundantly clear in the next chapter, actually. No mystery, just fun and giggles.**

 **TheAmberShadow: 'Will the guest kindly follow the orange line to the check in zone. Or else they get the lava.' That's the actual quote x3 / Haha, well, he doesn't know that. He changes his tune soon, though, don't worry. xD / No, you'll see. / Yep. xD / You'll see~**

 **Alice Forshadow: It's not really a battle... more like a tournament. xD**

 **AquaK13: (pats) / (laughs) / Yep, Stella is from her normal time and so is Radar. Jesse is from the beginning. / Waffles will probably not show up, but the next part will be explained in the next chapter. xD / No. xD**

 **homeworkoverload: Ugh, Romeo and Juliet– dumbest teenagers ever. xD / Cool :3**

 **Guest: Glad to hear you're interested! I think you're interested, at least xD**

 **CamronXTheXGamer: That's what I am, my friend... the Queen of Cliffhangers. xD**

 **Steve: I don't even know what those are so...**

 **J.M.M.: ... you haven't played Season 2 yet, have you?**

 **Toni42: Yes, I am actually quite excited. xD**

 **ThePhoenixQueen: Yes, yes she did! (I had to, otherwise Radar would be, like, ten xD) / (grins) / Nope. You'll see. Next chapter is a huuuuuge explanation chapter.**

 **Rabbits rule: Not exactly? / (laughs) I did say it's NOT the Hunger Games.**

 **Welp, that's all for now! See ya, so long, and g'byeeee!**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	4. Rules

Jesse watched as, over the course of several minutes- it was hard to tell exactly how much time had passed, there wasn't a clock in the room- many, MANY more people teleported in.

She was relieved when Axel popped in, tripping slightly and landing flat on Lukas, who'd teleported in seconds before, and even more relieved when Olivia showed up a few minutes later. Her relief was complete when Petra stepped into the room, practically looking like she'd just stepped through a doorway and didn't just teleport in.

However, with the exception of the Ocelots- Aiden wearing a gold wristband, Gill wearing red like Isa's, and Maya and Lukas wearing cyan wristbands- and the Order of the Stone- Soren showed up wearing the same shade of purple as Xara, the Warden, Nell, and Radar's, Magnus had a red wristband, and Ellegaard had lime green- and her friends, of course, Jesse did not see anybody else that she recognized, although from what Jesse could tell, some of the other people recognized each other.

Also, several of them recognized _her_ for some reason.

"Do you know what's going on?"

Jesse twisted to see the tall, red-skinned (no, he _literally_ had bright red skin), burly guy with _horns_ standing behind her. Oh, and let's not forget he was wearing a similar outfit to Xara's, except his appeared to be a bit tight and quite ripped. His wristband was about the width of Jesse's neck, and- to Jesse's slight relief, because it made him look slightly less intimidating- it was a nice shade of pink.

(Then again, it was the same color as Porkchop's. So maybe it wasn't so much of a relief.)

"Um, no, sorry. But, uh, my name's Jesse, nice to meet you!" Jesse said cheerfully, giving a little wave and trying to hide the fact that she was _kind of terrified_.

The burly guy gave her a brief nod, narrowing his eyes at her. "Oxblood. Pleased ta meet you." Even though Jesse felt like he was trying to be polite, he was still absolutely terrifying. (It didn't help that he was about three times her height.)

"Please be seated. The orientation will begin momentarily."

Jesse practically jumped half a foot in the air at the sudden voice emanating from- somewhere. She wasn't the only one- Aiden had just tripped straight into Isa in surprise, Radar had let out a loud squeak and darted behind the nearest person (who happened to be Xara), and the man in the purple suit (Adrian? No, _Hadrian_ , that was his name) that had started talking to Mevia flinched slightly and slammed his nose right into Mevia's forehead by accident.

When Jesse had sat down next to her friends on the carpet in the center of the floor (she was nervous about taking seats up), and Mevia had stopped wincing and clutching her forehead, and Aiden had apologized to the now-rather-angry man wearing some kind of uniform multiple times about accidentally bowling Isa to the floor- when, in short, everyone was seated in the room facing the screen, an eerie silence fell over the room.

Which was then broken a moment later.

"Hi, hello, and g'day, my name's Ariza Luca and welcome to... um... this thing." A short pause, and then the screen flickered to life, a young woman sighing and looking annoyed at herself as she ran a hand through her short black hair, a pink bang of hair hanging in her eyes. "I totally screwed that up, good job me..."

"Who are you?!" Gabriel shouted, jumping back to his feet with his hand tightening on his sword, eyes narrowing at 'Ariza' (what a weird name).

"... I just said. I'm Ariza."

Jesse stifled a small laugh at the matter-of-fact answer.

"Would you care to explain where we _are_?" the man in the purple suit drawled sarcastically at Jesse, his dark blue wristband glinting in the light the screen was now giving off. "For that matter, would you care to explain why we're _here_?"

"I'd love to, considering the fact that, if you _read the invitation_ correctly and in full, I did say I'd explain the full details of the Game Tournament if you chose to attend," Ariza said cheerfully, pink eyes gleaming. "You _did_ all mark the 'yes' on the invitation, right?"

Everyone sat still for a moment, staring at Ariza. Nobody stood up and shouted 'No, I didn't'... so Jesse could only assume that _everybody in this room_ had marked that they wished to attend the event.

Ariza took that as the opportunity to continue.

"Fantastic! So, if anyone has any further arguments about being here, can we get them out of the way please? Because we've got two weeks to go."

"What if we don't want to participate in your stupid games?" the burly girl next to Nell asked bluntly, green eyes narrowing at Ariza.

The black-haired girl just shrugged. "Well, then you don't have to, but you're gonna have to stay for the whole two weeks because the whole 'sending you home' thing is hard to reschedule, so it'll get super boring."

Everyone waited.

Ariza waited.

"... what, you're not going to kill us if we don't participate?" Maya asked, looking a little confused at the way Ariza was patiently waiting for further complaints about the Game Tournament.

"Of course not; you all willingly signed 'yes', so I assumed you were all willing to participate. If you've changed your mind, then you'll most likely just be bored out of your brain for about two weeks, which I feel like is a suitable punishment. I brought you here to generally have fun, not to keep you trapped here for my own entertainment."

A short silence as everybody in the room processed that. Ariza appeared to be practically _beaming_ at Hadrian, Mevia, and Otto, arms neatly folded.

"Please continue," the girl who'd introduced herself as 'Binta' earlier said softly.

"Alright, so, um, I... might've goofed up a little bit earlier with your invitations. For some reason, I forgot to include the optional 'pet' clause on the back, so, _that_ was smart of me..."

"Um, pet clause?" The interruption slipped out of Jesse's mouth faster than she'd intended.

Ariza didn't get annoyed or anything- she just smiled politely. "Yep- basically a clause where, if you wanted to bring your pet for the Games Tournament, you could mark that yes, you had a pet, and yes, you'd like to bring them. If you'd _like_ I can bring them in now...?"

"Yes please!"

Once again, Jesse interrupted, a little too enthusiastically. The reason she'd just _blurted_ that was because if she was going to be stuck here for two weeks, she might as well have Reuben with her.

Ariza blinked, before smiling. "Alrighty, everyone who has a pet, please raise your hand."

Jesse raised her hand pretty quickly. To her surprise, Isa, Cassie, Stella, Oxblood, Val, and Sue ( _was_ her name Sue? Jesse was halfway certain that it was something more like a food.) also raised their hands.

"Anyone else? No? Alright, then..." Ariza's eyes focused downwards, and some vague clicking noises could be heard. "Okay, and there we..."

Reuben abruptly appeared out of thin air and plopped into Jesse's lap. He let out a relieved and excited squeal upon seeing that he'd just gotten dumped into Jesse's lap, practically jumping up on his owner with an excited squeal. Jesse let out a laugh, scooping Reuben up into a tight, comforting hug. She could feel the small knot that had formed in her stomach dissolving at the familiar pink pig nestled in her arms. "Hey buddy! Did I worry you?"

Isa, who was a few seats behind Jesse, was practically cooing over a small white chicken wearing a crown, Cassie was practically death-hugging a calico cat, Stella was gently stroking a very fluffy-looking llama with a blue-and-pink-striped-scarf, Oxblood was hugging a mooshroom and making little happy cooing noises, and Val and Soup were exuberantly rubbing a brown llama's head. (The llama didn't seem to mind.)

"Okay, now that I fixed THAT little mistake, would you all like me to start with the general rules of this place, or would you rather I focus on what the actual tournament consists of?" Ariza asked after giving all of the pet owners a few moments to reunite with their pets.

Everyone glanced around at each other, feeling slightly put off by the fact that Ariza didn't seem to really care about their participation in her game tournament.

Finally, Lukas gave an awkward little cough. "Um, whichever you think is more important to start with."

Ariza nodded at that and, after making a few more clicking sounds, pulled up a list of five rules. Jesse read them quickly- it wasn't hard, considering there were only four rules.

 _RULES:_

 _1\. Don't cheat._

 _2\. Don't go into restricted areas without permission._

 _3\. Don't actively destroy anything._

 _4\. Don't attempt to cause harm to other people._

"You may have all noticed that you're all wearing various colored wristbands. The colors correspond to which team you're on- for example, a gold wristband means you're a member of the Gold Team. You will be basically working together with your team, more so in the second week, to do your best to win as many points as possible. Whoever has the most points at the end of the two weeks wins!"

Jesse sneaked a peek around her, noticing everyone beginning to murmur as they checked their wristband colors.

"There are a lot more functions that the wristband has besides just telling you what team they're on, but I won't get into most of those unless you want me to."

"So as you can see, the first rule is to not cheat. I _will_ know if you are cheating, and if you do so, you essentially forfeit all of the points that your team should receive for that round, getting yourself a total of _zero_ points regardless of what you should've gained. If you are caught cheating in the _second_ week, you will actually also _lose_ points rather than just gaining none."

Ariza waited for everyone to nod in comprehension before continuing. "The second rule is to not enter restricted areas without permission. You shouldn't be able to access most of the restricted areas regardless, but another restricted area for you is the dormitories of other teams. You have free access to enter your dormitory and can wander around inside that as much as you want, but you are NOT allowed to enter other teams' dormitories unless someone inside gives you express permission via the wristbands."

"Furthermore," Ariza continued, "you won't actually be able to enter anyway- without the proper permission codes, a signal is given off from that entrance that makes the wristbands produce a sort of 'force field' that will prevent you from moving forward. But, if you are caught even _attempting_ to enter without permission, you will be penalized a certain number of points- and will probably lose more as time goes on."

"Thirdly, just don't actively destroy anything. Simple. Try to leave everything the way you found it. I don't think I have to go that far into this rule."

"Fourth, _do not attempt to cause harm to other people_. You won't be able to do lethal or truly damaging harm to anyone- once things reach a certain velocity, force, or begin causing a certain amount of damage to your body, the wristbands will kick in and cause a force field that will repel your attacker. If you are caught trying to actively injure, maim, sabotage, or kill someone else..."

Ariza's face grew extremely grim. "Well, I'm not trying to keep you here for my own entertainment. I would much prefer that we play through the tournament, have fun, and not even have to talk about this. But if you are caught breaking rule number _four_ , then the punishment is a _little_ more severe than what the penalties for the previous three rules are."

Everyone processed that for a moment, looking at Ariza's deadly serious face.

And then Ariza smiled cheerfully. "Well, now that that boring stuff is out of the way, let's talk about the actual game and talk about how the actual tournament will work."

Jesse blinked at the sudden transition as Ariza continued mildly, "So, have any of you played Mafia or Werewolf?"

Jesse glanced around herself secretly to see that everybody had equally blank faces as they blinked at Ariza.

"No? Alright," Ariza said cheerfully, "'Mafia', also known as 'Werewolf', is basically a game where we've got a small group of 'murderers'- not literally, it's just the title we give to those people-" she added when she saw several people's eyebrows go up, "who know who is a 'murderer' and who isn't within a larger majority of players known as 'innocents' who don't know who _anybody_ is. The objective of the game for the 'murderers' is to outnumber the 'innocents', while the 'innocents' objective is to get rid of all the 'murderers'."

"We also have 'special' roles during the game, but I won't talk about those yet. They're gonna be a surprise!" Ariza said that very cheerfully, before continuing, "so, on the first week, _everyone_ will be participating in the game, and the teams aren't quite defined in there. On the first two days, we'll also be using a 'default' theme. _However_ , in the middle of the week, we'll start transitioning to another aspect of the game the next week that'll make it more difficult to gain the full amount of points."

"Oh, of course," Petra mumbled softly, crossing her arms in irritation.

Ariza continued, cheerfully. "Each day, we'll start having a different 'theme', and you will have to invent a character to participate in. It can be as similar to your regular personality as you want it to be, but there has to be something different and it can't give away your role within the game. Once you pick your character, you also have to _stay in character_ the entire time to gain the full amount of points that, well, that you can gain."

"Anyway, through the first week, everybody participates in the game, but on the second week, only one- or two, depending on the number of people in your group- will participate in the game. This will make gaining points more difficult and polarized."

Ariza paused, frowning slightly as she considers what she's said, before giving a mild smile.

"Any questions?"

* * *

 **A/N: I'm back!**

 **Okay, so I was out for an entire month (!) because I was working on a cool project that'll probably be released soon (possibly in a few days!); so keep an eye out for updates on that!**

 **Also, I don't know how clear I was with explaining the game; so if you have any questions about anything discussed in this chapter, please ask! Sorry if I wasn't very clear about it. I'll probably include the question and the answer directly in the chapter, so this is your chance to discuss it if you want. You can also ask about the extra functions of the wristbands.**

 **Also, you can have the characters ask questions that would suit their character or whatnot.**

 **Responses to reviews!**

 **LunarTheMooncake: Haha, yeah. / Yeeep, but that's understandable xD**

 **ItzJaiden: Lol I'm sorry about offending you. (Good joke xD) / (chokes) uh... I'll... let the Warden know.**

 **EllieRose27: Nope.**

 **TheAmberShadow: Haha, don't worry about it. They CAN function as a watch. / Yeah, that makes sense. / To me, it sounds slightly more female, but yeah, it really is more neutral. / (plops a beret on Romeo's head) There we go, now he is an artiste xD / Ah, no. Xara's still before, but she's relieved to see he's not in 'Admin' form, and Romeo is... also at the beginning of Season 2, but with his powers taken away. / Pffft xD Also, what exactly are you referring to? / Hehehe xD / I love sarcasm, so no problem there. xD / Ye x3**

 **homeworkoverload: (pats) / (shrugs)**

 **Emily the Avenger: Thanks fam**

 **MiekoHiroshima: Yes, they just hugged, glad to help xD**

 **Seithr03: Which one?**

 **Toni42: Ahh, I didn't notice that xD / Hehe, yes she is. xD / Aww, thanks bear x3**

 **Guest: I think it's because he's _Romeo_ and not... y'know. The Admin. So she's kinda halfway relieved.**

 **J.M.M.: Ahhh, I see.**

 **Metarose: Glad you like it so far!**

 **NoItsBecky: An actually decent one xD**

 **Ruby Ross: Here is more!**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	5. Frequently Asked Questions

There was a few moments of silence.

And then Gill raised his hand like a schoolkid.

Ariza glanced at Gill and gave him a cheerful smile. "Yes, Gill?" she asked, mildly. Jesse had only a couple seconds to wonder how she knew their names (without any introduction) before Gill rather bluntly asked his question.

"Are you human?"

Ariza blinked at the question, looking a bit confused at the sudden ask. "... yes...?"

"Well, if you _are_ human, then how did you get all this power? I mean, you literally teleported us here," Gill started counting off on his fingers, "teleported us around the place so far, and basically can keep us here for two weeks, so..." He paused, before giving her a sheepish grin. "Um, sorry if that sounds rude."

Ariza waved the question off, back to smiling pleasantly. "Ah, don't worry about it. Actually, it's less of a matter of _me_ having the power to do all this, and more of a matter of me calling in, like, half a billion favors from people who, combined together, _do_ have the power to do all this and then teaching me how to keep it running without blowing all the power."

Gill blinked at that, before making a soft 'ohhh' sound and glancing off, apparently seeming satisfied with this answer.

"What types of favors?" Hadrian wondered, squinting at Ariza with a frown. His voice was low and thoughtful, but at the same time he didn't seem to be aware that he'd been speaking at full volume. (Jesse was wondering if he was a sports announcer or something; the way he spoke certainly indicated it.)

Ariza heard, though, and she replied cheerfully, "Well, one of them involved me asking this guy who knows a demon who knows the devil and asking them to do me a small favor."

Everyone stared at Ariza.

Ariza grinned back.

... nobody could tell if that had been a joke or not.

Eventually, Cam stuck her hand into the air, looking extremely nervous about having the black-and-pink haired girl's attention on her.

"Cam?"

"Um-um-um, what- what else can the wristbands do?" The second the question had exited her lips, Cam's face turned a bright shade of red, and she quickly subsided, hands in her lap.

Ariza gave a bright smile. She tended to smile a lot. "Oh, glad you asked! So, I've already mentioned that it keeps you from getting injured, going into restricted areas, and the color indicates what team you're on, yes?"

Everyone gives a small nod of understanding, and so she continued, "Well, there's three other main functions that I feel like I should mention. One, it indicates who you are talking to. You know the earbuds I gave you all?" She tapped her ear, showing that she had a black earbud in there, like all of the other competitor's, except that it was... y'know. Black.

Another nod. Jesse felt like they were all turning into bobble-heads at this point.

"Well, the wristband will indicate who you are communicating with, whether it be me or some other member of your team or, well, generally everyone. You can use the wristband to switch through channels and talk to different people."

Ariza rattled her wristband before continuing, "also, during the game, in certain 'phases', the wristband and earbuds will start using a noise cancelling signal, so you won't be able to hear anything until the signal is disabled."

Ellegaard ( _the_ Ellegaard the Redstone Engineer, holy bananas) looked at the wristbands with an impressed expression on her face. Actually, now that Jesse looked around, Harper was now tilting her wristband back and forth, Olivia was examining it closely, the guy in the orange hoodie (SturdyCat? No, _Stampy_ Cat) was moving it around in his fingers, and Xara was touching the wristband as if she was trying to open it up. "That must've taken an _amazing_ amount of redstone," Ellegaard murmured, staring at it in wonder.

"Yep, I ended up having to ask..." Ariza's smile faded slightly. "... an old friend for help."

Several eyes darted around the room at that, but Jesse barely had time to see that Ivor's expression had a flicker of discomfort on it before it had gone back to normal.

Shaking it off quickly, she smiled at them all again. "Anyway, the communication function of the wristbands is basically like calling people on the phone. Pull up a certain person, and you can talk to them until you hang up." A slightly sheepish smile spread over Ariza's face a moment later. "Um, warning...

"The next function is that you can pull up a map of the whole place that indicates where you are. It turns out that the place is kinda confusing to navigate, according to the beta-testers-"

"The _what_ testers?" The Warden asked, but Ariza ignored him and kept talking. Maybe she hadn't caught it.

"So I incorporated a map that'll indicate where you are at the time, and you can pull up labels of places and all that nonsense. Also, other people will show up on the map, so if you're trying to find someone, that's also pretty handy," Ariza added mildly, touching two fingers to the wristband on her wrist and flicking upwards sharply, resulting in a hovering, blue map above her wrist. She waited until everyone else had tried it themselves, before flicking back down sharply with the same two fingers and shrinking the amp back into her wrist.

"And the final function worth noting is that in each game, you can pull up details from that specific game up. For example, if you were one of the 'murderers', the information that would appear would be your name, your role- the murderer, of course, in this situation- the people still in the game, and which phase of the game is in effect."

Ariza flicks the wristband sharply, knocking another hovering screen with information on it. Jesse barely managed to catch 'Ariza Luca', 'Moderator/Narrator', and 'N/A' before Ariza flicked the wristband again, making it retract back into the wristband.

"This is handy in case you don't quite remember _what_ role you are or what you can do, or if you're trying to figure out who you still need to eliminate and who's on what team. Only in the case of the murderers, though. The innocents are just stuck there." The girl shrugs, glancing back at the wristband. "Beyond that, you can also use the wristband as a watch."

Jesse tilted her wrist towards herself to get a better look, and the time sprang up on her wrist.

Ellegaard looked as if she were in _awe_ of the wristband. The redstone wiring needed for this must be _way_ more complicated than Jesse had initially assumed if _Ellegaard_ was this impressed.

"Any more questions about the wristbands, or just more questions in general?" Ariza asked pleasantly, lowering her wrist again.

This time, Mevia's arm went up into the air, the woman flicking back a lock of pale blue hair as she did so. Ariza nodded, the pleasant smile on her face twitching into a slightly larger one. "Ah, yes, Mevia?"

"What exactly did you mean by 'characters' or 'avatars' or... the 'themes' that you mentioned?" Mevia asked, lowering her arm so that they were resting neatly on her lap this time as her brow furrowed at Ariza.

Ariza's lips twisted as she considered this, tapping the corner of her mouth. "Hmmm... alright, here's a better explanation of that. On the first two days, we will be going with the default 'theme', which is a village that happens to be infested with werewolves, and you all basically just... act like yourselves. Just be yourself for those two days. But on the _third_ day, while we're still staying with the default 'theme', you have to invent a new personality to play the game as- basically, you're a _character_ in that."

"For example, let's say on the third day, I'm a normal villager. In that case, I'd invent a character for myself to fill that role; so instead of being Ariza Luca I'd be... let's see, uh, Quinnetep Anderson, a girl who likes mountain climbing and lived at the top of Celeste Mountain, but then moved to this lovely village filled with werewolves to take a break from the mountain."

"Oooooh, so it's like role-playing!" Romeo exclaimed, eyes lighting up. His cheeks dusted pink when everyone turned to look at him in surprise, and he immediately shut his mouth and sank back into the couch. Xara, who was sitting next to him, looked torn between being amused or concerned.

Ariza tapped her nose and then pointed at him, pink eyes gleaming cheerfully. "Very good, Romeo! Wow, that was a much simpler way of explaining it. I'm dumb." She rolled her eyes at herself. "Anyway, so the 'characters' or 'avatars' is the 'character' you invent to fill the role that day, if that makes sense. Kind of like inventing your own character in Dungeons and Dragons."

"And the themes?" Otto (was that his name? Jesse thought it might've been Octavian or something. Or Octavius?) asked, calmly.

"Gettin' to that. The 'themes', as I mentioned, are basically what the characters will be structured around. As mentioned, the default theme is the village that's infested with werewolves, but each day we'll have a different setting and theme. For example- not saying this'll actually be used, just saying- we may end up having a small, quaint village that is deathly allergic to dogs, and the 'murderers' will be were-corgis that will cuddle their victims to death."

"Oh, that's adorable..." Jesse twisted around to see Radar blinking before blushing at everyone's gazes now being fixed upon him.

Ariza grinned. "Glad you think so. I probably won't use that theme, but I do enjoy it. Anyway, yeah- the 'themes' are basically where that day's game will be 'set'. While we still have the same game mechanics and roles, they will probably be explained in a different way than they were initially, and will be used as a refresher because, let's face it, there's literally over 100 roles, so it's hard to keep track of them."

"Well, any more questions?"

Stella's arm lifted into the air softly. Ariza nodded at her, and Stella asked, "Ah, I've noticed that some people don't seem to recognize other people, while others do... what exactly is...?"

"Ah. Uh, that's really iffy to explain. Basically you're from different periods of time at the moment."

Everyone stared at Ariza, waiting for further explanation on that because that little statement made almost _no sense_ , but she simply sat there and said absolutely nothing.

At last, the Warden's hand went up. Ariza shifted slightly, leaning her chin on her hand and giving a nod in his direction. "Yes, Warden?"

"Are we allowed to switch teams?"

"No." Ariza's answer was so prompt that it made everyone in the room blink in surprise. Usually she rambled on and on for about ten minutes before stopping.

There was a brief pause, the Warden blinking uncertainly at Ariza.

At last, he gave an awkward cough, arching his eyebrow. "What if we have a _very_ big problem with one of our teammates?" he asked, glancing sidelong at Xara (her gaze darkened as she stared back).

"Unless your teammate actively attempts to kill you- which, by the way, is against Rule 4 and so probably will not be perpetuated- then I unfortunately won't switch your teams. If you have bad blood with one of your teammates, I'd suggest sucking it up and getting over it for the two weeks that you'll be here. It's not forever. You're just going to have to deal with them for 14 days."

Ariza paused after that, before giving a half-apologetic shrug. "Sorry."

Aiden glanced at Jesse sidelong, his celery-green eyes narrowing. Jesse spotted the look and shifted her gaze away from the other boy, cheeks flushing red.

Ariza waited for a good thirty seconds for any more questions to emerge. When no more appeared, she clapped her hands together cheerfully. "Okay! Well, if you all end up having any more questions, please feel free to call me and ask me. I'll be happy to answer any question you'd like! Now, I'd recommend that you get yourself acquainted with the place so you don't get lost. Feel free to explore, and again, if you've got any questions, please feel free to ask."

"Also, meet your teammates and introduce yourselves, and feel free to go to your dorms. ALSO, if you're on the same team with someone you currently have problems with, please talk it out with them, since you'll basically be living down the hall from them and collaborating with them for the next two weeks."

She sat for a moment, before giving them all a grin. "Yeah. Uh, see ya, so long, and g'bye!"

And she clicked out.

There was a moment of silence as everyone tried processing what had just happened, before Jesse glanced down at her gold wristband. Looking around a moment later, she looked to Romeo, who was still sitting next to Xara and looking a little shy, fingering the gold wristband on his wrist. Leaning over, she gives a little wave to him, making him blink at her. "Ah, hi, Romeo..." She gave him a sheepish smile. "I guess we're on the same team?"

"Same here," Stella briefly raised her wrist. Mevia adjusted her own bangle, Ivor glanced at his wrist before huffing, and Harper tugged at the wristband. Aiden glanced at his own silently as well, but said nothing.

That was a small indication to start discussing teams, apparently, and soon everyone was grouping off into their own little clumps to discuss their teams. Axel gave Jesse a small pat on the back as he moved with Olivia to where the others with green wristbands were sitting, and Petra joined the cyan group.

"So," Aiden said all of a sudden, making Jesse look over at the Ocelot, who had shifted over to sit next to her because the gold group was quietly introducing themselves to each other. Jesse, having been here the earliest, had witnessed all of the introductions of this group, so she didn't really have to stick around and listen.

"... so."

Aiden crossed his arms and looked at Jesse, while Stella interrupted in the middle of Mevia's introduction and caused the two women to start arguing. "I guess we're on the same team for this."

"... yep."

"..." The two of them stared at each other for a moment, saying absolutely nothing as they sized each other up like a pair of wild animals. Very well-mannered wild animals.

Aiden shifted slightly. "Look, just to be clear, I don't like you."

"Yes, we've established that from the millions of times you've called me trash, my friends trash, a loser, lame, or stupid," Jesse responded mildly, without skipping a beat. "And I'm not even entirely sure why you bully my friends and me, so..."

The Ocelot let out an irritated huff. "Can you get to the point?"

"I don't know, can you explain why you feel like it's necessary to bully a girl and her friends who, outside of the Endercon Building Competition, interact with one another a total of two times a year?" Jesse replied, crossing her arms and squinting at him.

"If it's really such a big deal to you," Aiden hissed back, trying to keep his voice low as Harper introduced herself again, making Ivor look at her sidelong, "it's because you're physically the most annoying person on the planet."

"I think that's subjective."

"You're nice to _everybody_ , even if they're a complete _jerk_ to you," Aiden continued, ignoring Jesse's comment, "you're way too polite to everyone, and you're happy _all the damn time._ Heck, you're probably one of the only people who didn't _flip the frick out_ over the fact that we're stuck here for _two weeks_."

"So you feel the necessity to bully me for it?" Jesse whispered back, keeping her voice very low. "I mean, I've never _done_ anything to you. And I'm not bothering you with being a positive human being."

Aiden opened his mouth to retort, only to find there was none there. He sat there for a moment, mouth slightly ajar, before he clenched it shut, narrowing his eyes at Jesse. He seemed unwilling to open his mouth again.

"Look, I don't even know _why_ you do it, or if it's actually _necessary_ , and we can discuss this later if you'd like," she offered, softly. "But if you don't want to talk about it, that's okay too. Just... can we call a truce? Just for... I dunno. Two weeks." Jesse offered her hand to him, in a sort of awkward 'handshake' motion.

He looked at it for a moment, before taking her hand and giving it the briefest shake possible, his mouth pressed into a thin line as he looked at her. "Truce."

* * *

 **A/N: If you get the human-demon-devil reference, you are awesome. And the 'Quinnetep' reference. And the village with the deathly allergy to cute dogs.**

 **If, at any time, you have a question, please feel free to ask- I will do my best to incorporate it into the story!**

 **And also, yay! We've got a truce. This story will probably get deeper and more emotionally involved than I expected, because I'm going to be experimenting. Yay. Hoped you guys had your questions answered!**

 **Also, in terms of that project last time, on a lot of my other stories I've mentioned that I've been working on a Minecraft: Story Mode fangame with Toni42, and it's finally done! So, you can play it by looking up 'Trust Fall' by Astral Autumn Games, or just go to this link here:**

 **arizaluca . itch . io / trust - fall**

 **Just get rid of the spaces and the link should work!**

 **Responses to reviews!**

 **gollyohgosh: If I wasn't planning on writing anymore, I would tell you guys. I wouldn't just stop randomly unless there was an emergency.**

 **TheAmberShadow: Well, glad to see you again! / xD / Yeah, that's a good point. / Yep xD / Yes. xD / Answered!**

 **MiekoHiroshima: x3 / Answered! / Haha, no, I wish.**

 **Toni42: Lol xD / I think at the moment they're all freaking out about everything else going on; once that kicks in all the 'HOLY SHOOT' about Reuben'll also kick in. / It's really awesome! I think you'd like it x3**

 **LunarTheMooncake: (chuckles) Glad you like it.**

 **SoundMusician60: Ah, that's awesome! Good to see you! / (grins) / Thanks!**

 **EmLee: (thumbs up) / (laughs)**

 **Emily the Avenger: It's a fun game!**

 **AquaK13: Yes, yes I am! x3 / Glad you like it! And nah, that's not weird, I know what you mean xD / Nah, they're sort of just there. / Haha, yeah. That's going to be fun xD / Nope, as far as I'm aware anyway. / Answered!**

 **Hope y'all enjoy! See ya, so long, and g'bye!**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	6. Strategy

Jesse's room was nice.

It wasn't a super fancy room or anything, but there was a pink carpet, a bed with pink blankets, a bookshelf with some books on them, and a couple portraits hanging on the walls. Reuben seemed to be happy with the pink, and Jesse was just happy to see that there weren't any particularly weird things in the room. (There WAS a chest with random items in it, but none of the items seemed to be particularly dangerous.)

Jesse was also already starting to see why you needed the wristband's map function. To reach the rooms from the room they'd been in earlier, you had to ascend a set of stairs into a large hallway.

(As a side note, the hallway was very pretty. The rooms in the hallway were separated by glass, the floor appeared to be made out of quartz, and the ceiling was made of wood with glowstone lamps keeping the hallway well lit. There was a bathroom with flowers on the roof, a dining hall, and a kitchen that was very well-stocked, as far as Jesse had noticed.)

Once reaching the hallway, you had to walk to the main entrance, which was at the other end of the hall, before turning into a smaller room with several pressure plates on them. _Then_ you had to step on the pressure plates, which then... teleported you, or whatever, to a small sort of atrium with hallways lined with various colors. Locating the gold hallway was easy, and then you had to walk down the hallway and find your assigned room.

Jesse's was at the very end of the hall, right next to Ivor's and right across from Stella's and on the left side.

(Jesse had forced herself to memorize this location because, knowing herself, she would instantly forget where it was even if she had to walk down the exact same hallway twelve times in a row.)

There was also another pressure plate in the teleportation area labelled 'Amenities', but Jesse was way too tired to check that out right now. She wasn't really in any particular mood to do it, either.

Her wristband buzzed, startling her out of her slight stupor. She'd been honestly considering just going to sleep at this point until the next day. Glancing down at the glint of gold on her wrist with the black band through it, words flickered over the surface- apparently it was a communication from Petra.

Huh. She and Petra hadn't ever been particularly close before, but whatever- she tapped the wristband to 'answer' the 'call'. Immediately, Petra's voice appeared in her right ear, sounding as normal as if Petra was just standing at her right and talking.

"- this thing working? I don't know how this thing..." Some weird scratching sounds that sounded like the microphone on Petra's was being adjusted. "Hey, Jesse? Are you there?"

"Hi Petra. Yeah, it's me. I'm here." Jesse waved, before realizing nobody was in the room and the only other 'person' in the room was Reuben. "What's up?"

Petra's relief could be heard in her voice. "Hoooh boy. I was hoping I got the right person. I accidentally called Olivia the first time." Her tone shifted to a slightly more business-like one. "So, how are your teammates so far?"

Jesse hummed, lips turning up in a slight pout. "Mm, I haven't actually talked to them, maybe except for Aiden. I guess they all seem okay."

A knock sounded on the door all of a sudden. Or, well, it was more like a tap of the knuckles on the door. "Sorry, Petra, someone's at the door, I'll talk to you later."

Petra's tone had turned rather teasing. Jesse could practically see the grin on her face. "Wow, you're popular. Sure, if I can figure out how to use this thing properly."

Jesse gave a bright laugh. "Okay, see ya later- yes, hi, who is it?" Jesse called, twisting around to face the door as she hung up the call. Crouching on her bed and facing the wall, while it did help her feel more drowsy, didn't help if she was trying to talk to someone.

"Oh, I, er, you're in there?"

That was Harper's voice.

"Mmhm." Jesse quickly swung her legs off of the bed, jogged over to the door, and pulled it open quickly. Harper was standing in the doorway, hand hovering in the air as if she was about to knock. Quickly, Harper lowered her arm back to her side, a flush spreading over her cheeks in slight embarrassment. It was hard to see against her cheeks, but she definitely looked rather embarrassed.

"Er, sorry. We were about to have a meeting about figuring out a strategy for winning the game, so, I thought I'd come and let you know."

Jesse gave a pleasant smile. "Ah, okay. Thanks for that!" She stepped out of her room, waited for Reuben to pop out of the room as well, and let the door slide shut behind her. "Where are we having the meeting?" She decided the best thing to do would just to be nice to Harper. No need to embarrass her or anything.

Harper jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "We decided to have it in Stella's room, since her llama is sleeping and she didn't want to leave it behind."

"Understandable."

"Yes, ah..."

Harper would probably have said more, but the door across the hallway promptly slid open, and Ivor stuck his head into the hallway. "Did you get her yet- oh. Yes, you did."

Jesse smothered a laugh at that, but managed to keep it in what looked like a mostly pleasant smile as she lifted her hand in a wave. "Hi, Ivor."

He jerked his head at her in what looked like a nod, before stepping aside and allowing her into Stella's room.

Stella's room, interestingly enough, had a mostly purple motif. Purple carpet, purple bed, even mostly purple books on the bookshelf (which Jesse found sort of interesting. The books on HER bookshelf weren't primarily pink). Apparently, everyone was already seated in various places around the room, or in some cases, like Aiden's, standing. The llama (Stella had called her Luna or something earlier) was actually taking a nap in the corner.

"Okay, so we're all here," Stella promptly began, the moment the door shut behind Jesse, Harper, and Reuben. "I think the first thing we should do is elect a leader."

Jesse blinked at how quick Stella was to jump to this, but a moment later she nodded. "I... don't see a problem with it. It would definitely keep things more organized if someone was there to rein it in."

"Let me guess, you're volunteering," Ivor piped up, rather flatly.

Now it was Stella's turn to blink. "Well... yes. Is there a problem with that?"

Despite the pleasant tone of voice the blonde woman had taken, Jesse couldn't help but notice the almost hostile undertone to Stella's voice.

"Yes, actually." Ivor leaned against the wall himself, crossing his arms. "I've noticed that whenever people say 'we need to elect a leader', they tend to volunteer themselves. And those people don't tend to actually _make_ very good leaders."

Stella's face darkened. "What exactly are you insinuating, then?" she snapped back, voice sharpening to the point where the hostility was no longer an undertone but plainly evident. "That _you_ want to be the leader? Because _clearly_ you seem to be interested."

"I mean, he _could_ be a good leader," Harper murmured, making Ivor blink and then look at her in bewilderment.

"Actually, I think _I_ should be the leader." This came from Romeo.

Aiden scoffed. "Are you kidding? _I_ should be the leader. I'm used to working with a team. Jesse can vouch for that."

Jesse started as Aiden abruptly looked at her, but before she could say or do anything, Aiden continued, "I don't know _anyone_ else in here who has anyone else that can vouch for their ability to be a good leader."

"Well, Jesse does, I suppose..."

Jesse blinked and looked at Stella, Stella looking just as surprised that she'd said it. How would Stella know? Jesse had never met her before. (Well, there WAS the fact that Stella seemed to recognize her, but that couldn't possibly count.)

Aiden looked startled at the assertion, but before this little argument could escalate any further out of control, Mevia interrupted, sounding irritated about everybody's immaturity. "I have an idea, who _doesn't_ want to be the leader?"

Jesse's hand instantly shot up. She was already nervous enough from leading a group of _two_ people, those people being her best friends. She did _not_ need to be in charge of a group of _seven_ people, only recognizing one of them and that one person being someone who pretty much hated her guts for a not-particularly-good-reason, that would certainly shoot stress levels through the roof-

"I vote Jesse to be the leader, then."

"Wh-?" Jesse immediately snatched her hand out of air, feeling her cheeks heat up in embarrassment at suddenly being nominated as the role of the _leader_ of the group.

Mevia ignored this and looked at everyone in the room, simply looking bored. "Everyone in favor, say yes or aye."

"Wait wait, I didn't-"

Harper shrugged nonchalantly, looking over at Mevia. "I mean, I have no objection to it."

Ivor considered Jesse for a moment, this tiny, practically-a-midget girl with her pet pig in her lap, before giving a nonchalant shrug himself and looking back at Mevia. "I suppose we could have a worse option."

Romeo's eyes lit up as he regarded Jesse, irises practically starting to sparkle in excitement, before he turned back to Mevia and gave her a rapid nod. "Yes. A definite yes from me."

"Hang- guys, hang on, I didn't-"

Stella frowned, glancing over at Jesse. "Well... I can't deny that she's not a good leader." A short pause as Stella's hazel eyes flicked over Jesse a little, before she let out a sigh and turned back to face the others. "You know what, why not."

Aiden scowled. "Well, I don't think-"

Mevia interrupted before he could get any further with that. "Too bad. At this point, 5 out of 7 people in this room have already voted yes, ignoring the person who is being voted _for_. Even if you say no, you have been completely outvoted. Any objections?" she asked, ignoring the way Aiden's face was beginning to turn red with anger.

"Hang on, _I_ certainly don't agree to this!" Jesse exclaimed, face bright red at this point, although unlike Aiden's, hers was red out of complete embarrassment. "What was the point of asking who _doesn't_ want to be the leader if you're just going to make them the leader anyway?!"

"Someone who doesn't _want_ power or leadership is that much less likely to abuse it. Besides, we _did_ all default to having you greet everybody and give them a quick explanation when they started teleporting into the room," Mevia promptly answered.

Jesse paused, mouth frozen in the halfway-open position as she tried to think of a proper retort.

Upon coming up with none, she slowly shut her mouth and gave them all a rather shy smile, feeling the blush pumping through her cheeks uncontrollably. "Well, um... then I guess I'll be the leader for now."

Aiden's scowl grew darker, but he said nothing for a moment before crossing his arms. "Well, any ideas for strategies then, _leader_?" He said that word rather bitterly, like it was a pill someone had shoved in his mouth and told him to swallow.

Jesse winced slightly, but then tapped her fingers to her lips thoughtfully. "Well... 'Ariza' explained that 'Werewolf' or 'Mafia'-"

"Mafiawolf," Romeo suggested, cheerfully.

"Sure, Mafiawolf, is basically a game with a smaller group of the 'bad' people who tries to eliminate members of the larger 'good' people , where the 'good' people try to eliminate all of the 'bad' people while the 'bad' people try to outnumber the 'good' people. Is that about right?"

Ivor pursed his lips, considering this, before finally giving a nod. "Yes, that sounds about right."

"Okay..." Jesse pursed her lips a little, before giving a firmer nod herself. "Okay. Ariza mentioned that we had 'special' roles in the game. So regarding those, assuming we're good- and even if we're _not_ good, just assume so for now- don't immediately give away your special role. Don't tell everyone that you have that special role."

"It makes sense. If we _were_ the good side and we had a special role, telling everyone that we had that special role, we'd get eliminated very quickly," Ivor agreed, thumbing the corner of his mouth.

"Right, but also, if it _is_ helpful to the team you're on- let's say the good team- reveal your role then. If revealing your role will provide some sort of benefit to the team you're on, go ahead and give it away," Jesse added. "Don't just keep it secret for the whole game- if you're about to 'die' or if you can figure out a way that the team can win, use it."

"I think it might also be beneficial to lie about your role, regardless of if you're on the good or bad team." That was Harper. "Keeping your identity a mystery would definitely keep you from being killed by the 'bad' team if you're a special role, but if you're trying to keep the 'special' roles in the game, then it might also be helpful to get yourself eliminated by claiming you're one of the special roles and then having them waste their elimination on a 'normal' person."

Jesse grinned. "Yeah, that works too!" She paused, before raising a finger and tilting her head slightly. "For that matter, let's say we're a 'bad' person. It might not be a good idea to eliminate the most obvious person."

"How do you mean?" Stella looked a bit confused now.

"Well, let's say there's somebody out for blood and trying to eliminate one of the 'bad' people. What would seem most obvious is to just eliminate them right on the spot. But that could result in the 'good' people becoming suspicious that this person was bad-mouthing someone and then ended up eliminated," Jesse continued. "So it would be better to eliminate someone else and throw off the scent."

"Ooooohhhh, yeah!" Romeo grinned and then patted Jesse on the back, which was a bit awkward because she didn't really know him. "You're good at this."

"Um, thank you..."

The meeting eventually came to a slow halt when everyone had come up with some various ideas, Aiden even eventually seeming less annoyed- enough to at least offer a few of his own ideas. (He actually even suggested that one should ignore body language and just focus on reasoning and voting to guess who the bad people were, if you were good.) With slightly awkward goodbyes and nods and handshakes, everyone returned to their rooms.

Jesse had been drowsy earlier, but now she was wide awake. The meeting had gone well (nobody maimed, terribly offended, or otherwise injured), but now she was excited to see what else was going to happen tomorrow.

This sounded like it was going to be fun... right?

* * *

 **A/N: Yes xD**

 **Okay. I've noticed that I've been getting really far and few between on updates, and the main reason is that I have no motivation to write Composite or Hybrid: Cinematic Mode at the moment. I do have SOME motivation, but not enough for me to really write a good chapter. I don't know why motivation levels have been so low- probably because right now is my exam period and I'm trying to get my grades to a decent level by the end of the year, and I also don't like feeling like I'm forced to do things.**

 **So, for the next month, I'll be updating weekly on Wednesdays, but there's no guarantee that I'm going in any order. I'll literally just be updating whatever strikes my fancy at the time. Keep in mind, I'm also working on a video game, so that also takes a HUGE chunk out of my time.**

 **LunarTheMooncake: Pfffftttt, glad you liked this. xD**

 **homeworkoverload: Oh no, they are cuddling us to death. xD / Maybe ;3**

 **MiekoHiroshima: (winks) / Glad to hear it!**

 **Watcher321: Lol, yep xD / Yes, Werewolf is lots of fun. xD**

 **TheAmberShadow: Nah, fair enough! / (shrugs) I dunno. What do you think? / Hahahahaha oh boy, someone is going to end up maimed. / It was something along the lines of 'wtf?' probably xD / I shall answer ALL OF THE QUESTIONS (just not necessarily in the story haha) / Same honestly xD / (winks) Hm, I wonder why. / Agh xD**

 **BrightentheSun: Platonic, sure. Romantic, probably not.**

 **Emily The Avenger: STAY READY**

 **CremeDeLaCreme: Yeet x3**

 **CamronXTheXGamer: Ahhh, thank you! That's such a nice thing to say. x3**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	7. Game Start

"Hi, hello, and g'day, and welcome to our first day of the annual Games Tournament!"

Jesse blinked sleepily at the ceiling, Ariza's voice carrying clearly through the room. Maybe there was some sort of jukebox system, but Jesse could hear Ariza's voice over the loudspeaker very clearly.

"The game will start in two hours, so make sure you eat something before we start- I'm not sure how long the game's going to last. Further instructions will be provided when you reach the area where we'll be playing the game."

Ariza paused. "I should probably explain how you're going to do that. To reach that area, you're going to need to head back to the warp pads- that's what I'm calling 'em from now on, the teleportation areas- and teleport back to the main hallway that you found yesterday. That also gives you an opportunity to have breakfast! Anyway, after that, please head back to the warp pad and find the sign that reads 'Game Arena'. Once you get there, I'll explain how we're going to start the game."

Another short pause.

"Oh, and your pets aren't allowed with you while you're playing the game, so please leave them in the watching room before coming to where the Game Arena is located," Ariza added hastily.

Yet _another_ short pause. "Okay, that should be it for now. See ya, so long, and g'bye~!"

The voice clicked off.

Jesse let out a lazy sigh, reaching down and scratching Reuben's ears. "Alright, buddy, we'd better get going and eat something," she said, kind of lazily.

Reuben let out a little piggy whine, sitting up and waiting for Jesse to also sit up. Once she did, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed and standing up, he hopped off as well, snuffling and rubbing against her leg. She hadn't changed or anything, but she still felt fine in her clothes, so she supposed it could've been worse. "Alright, let's go find ourselves some breakfast."

Reuben let out a happy oink and trotted over to the door as Jesse quickly straightened out her clothes and made sure she didn't look like she'd just slept a whole night in her clothes. Even though she had. And she didn't look that bad anyway.

Well, it was about time to wake up, anyway.

* * *

Jesse hadn't expected to run into Stella's pet llama.

Literally. Her door slid open and she walked straight into the llama, the creamy llama with the scarf letting out an alarmed bleating sound as she walked straight into it.

"Oh! I'm sorry. Are you okay?" Jesse asked the llama, backing away and meeting the llama's eyes. It was so _cute_ \- a little smaller than a full-grown adult, yet a little bigger than the size it should've been if it was a baby. She had the overwhelming urge to pet it.

She quashed this urge. It was Stella's pet, not hers, and as Jesse had learned the hard way, petting pets that aren't yours are sometimes a recipe to get the owner of said pet very angry at you.

The llama- Jesse was _pretty sure_ the llama's name was Lluna- Lluna stared at her for a moment, blue eyes blinking at her slightly.

And then it cocked its head back a bit.

Jesse barely had time to blink in confusion before a large amount of llama-spit hit her right in the face. Thankfully, she'd been in the middle of blinking right when it did so, so she didn't get any of the saliva in her eyes, but... still.

"Oh!" Jesse jumped back, managing to bang her back into the wall from surprise.

Stella's voice faded into being, sounding a little amused. "Oh- sorry. I didn't realize that she was going to spit on you."

Jesse gave a little giggle, wiping the spit off of her face and blinking up at Stella. "Well, it's a surprisingly good defense against people who might randomly try to pet her," she said, chuckling slightly as she spoke. "Although I can't blame people for wanting to pet her, she looks so _fluffy_." And Jesse gave Lluna a warm grin.

Lluna stared at Jesse, before backing up a step, lowering her head, and then bumping it right into Jesse's midriff.

Reuben gave a defensive oink, making Lluna tilt her head up to stare at the little pink pig. The llama looked almost interested by Reuben. A moment passed before the llama bent closer and sniffed Reuben.

Reuben snuffled at her.

And then the two of them both straightened up, Lluna butting her head into Jesse's chest again before trotting back to where Stella was standing.

Stella blinked at her llama, before looking up at Jesse and arching her eyebrow slightly.

"No, I don't know what's going on either."

"Alright, I was just wondering."

The blonde woman hummed, glancing down the hallway to see that Ivor had emerged from his own room, running a hand through rather-lank hair with a tired sigh. "Well... shall we all head down to breakfast, then?"

Jesse paused, before shrugging. "Yeah, that sounds good."

Stella hummed again, regarding Jesse with a sort of interested look. Jesse wondered what that was about for about a second before Stella began to walk down the hallway. "Well, come along, then."

"Um- yes, ma'am."

"You don't need to call me 'ma'am', I'm not that old..."

* * *

After some time, where Axel picked Jesse up off of the floor and gave her a tight hug while she halfheartedly complained about it, and Petra came and clapped her on the back so hard she nearly did a faceplant into where she was eating her bread, and Olivia checking over her to make sure she was okay because Aiden _was_ on her team, and spotting Romeo sitting next to Xara and looking worried and terrified and like he was very happy all at the same time, with Binta chatting happily with Xara while shooting a death glare in Romeo's direction for reasons that Jesse really could not grasp, while the Warden sat very far away from Porkchop, Oxblood (who seemed just as pleased as Xara had to see him), and Anthony (who did not seem so displeased but still), and Val managed to somehow send a fish flying across the room and slapped it right into the side of Aiden's head, and Aiden picked up his half-eaten apple and threw it back at her, managing to start a miniature food fight with Mevia picking her plate up and leaving with a scowl on her face, Ivor dragging Harper away from the large donut flying in her direction, and Hadrian trying to tell everyone to _shut up_ and getting hit with a piece of wet seaweed-

When, in short, everyone had finished eating breakfast, they followed Ariza's instructions and ended up in a very, very large room. There were small, upright boxy containers that extended all down the hallway, signs clipped to the sides and tops topped with nice colors, like gold, green, cyan-

"This looks... incredibly like some sort of test lab," Harper mumbled, running her fingers along one of the containers before checking the sign on the side.

She blinked.

"Er... Gill, was it?"

Gill blinked at suddenly being addressed by the white-haired woman. "Oh- yeah?" he asked, traipsing over to where Harper was scanning the red top of the container and checking inside the machinery.

"This is yours."

Gill blinked again. "Huh?"

Harper backed up a step and tapped the sign, which, now that Harper wasn't standing in front of it, Jesse could see read 'Gill'.

"Hey, I have one too!" Cassie exclaimed, pointing at one with a blue top.

"Yeah, my name's on this one..." Stacy's lips twisted as she looked the container up and down. "Um... I'm a little worried..."

Ariza cleared her throat, making everyone jump as her voice issued over the system again. "Um, hi everybody! We're going to start the game in a minute, so here's the deal. To play the game, please find the box... tube... thingy that has your name on it and step inside."

Magnus ( _Magnus the Rogue!_ ) scowled, crossing his arms. "Oh yeah? What happens if we don't want to?"

Ariza was silent for a moment. "... oh, wait, you can't see me shrugg- okay."

Several of the 'players' had to smother slight grins at that.

The black-haired girl cleared her throat and resumed speaking. "Then you can just warp out and head to the room where orientation was held and watch it, if you'd like. If you don't want to watch it, you can just head back to your room and do whatever. Like I said, I'm here for everyone to have fun, not _forcing them to play_."

Em and Nell automatically glanced over their shoulders in Hadrian, Mevia, and Otto's direction.

Mostly Hadrian's.

Jesse barely had time to wonder what _that_ was about, before Ariza picked back up, "Anyway, once you step into your... I'm just going to call it Play Station-" she paused, giving a soft chuckle. "Heh. PlayStation."- before picking back up, "you will need to flick your wristband to learn your role for this game, and also for the Play Station to figure out that you're inside and begin the game for you."

Ariza paused, before giving a slight laugh. "I think you guys'll find it cool. See you soon!"

And her voice clicked back off.

There were several moments of silence, and Jesse could see everyone glancing around at each other, as if waiting for somebody to step into the tubes first.

Well, why not?

She finally walked forward, looking at the golden top and then the label that read 'Jesse' neatly, before simply stepping inside. She fit pretty neatly, considering she was so small compared to most everybody.

As the door of the container started to slide shut, Jesse could see Axel giving a smile and a shrug at Olivia before sidling into his own container, which surprisingly held him pretty well. Then Olivia stepped into her own, Petra sighed with a roll of her eyes and entered, Lukas- surprisingly- gave a little shrug and walked into the containers, Ivor rubbed a hand down his face as if he was irritated beyond the dickens and passed hers-

And then the door finally slid shut, blocking off everything. Jesse couldn't even hear if anyone else was stepping into their own containers.

An awkward moment or two passed, before Jesse glanced down at her wristband. It was flashing a message on the black part.

 _Please flick your wristband to begin the game and receive your role._

Jesse flicked the wristband, the screen flashing to life. The screen from the day before appeared, showing Jesse's picture on one side, smiling slightly. She remembered this picture. It was part of a picture she'd taken with Olivia and Axel a few years before, after they won a game at Endercon.

She had to wonder how Ariza had gotten it.

The data for her role flickered up, and Jesse scanned the screen quickly.

 ** _Name: Jesse._**

 ** _Role: Mystic Seer_**

 ** _People still in the game: 45  
_ _Murderers: 10_**

 ** _Phase of Game: Introductions_**

Jesse frowned, arching her eyebrow slightly at the role she had. "'Mystic Seer'...?" she murmured, curiously. What on earth was a Mystic Seer?

The screen flickered, text appearing.

 ** _The Mystic Seer replaces the Seer when she is in the game. Each night, the Mystic Seer wakes up and chooses a player. She is able to see the exact role of a player, unlike the Seer, who in the normal game can only see if the player is a villager or a werewolf._**

Jesse's eyebrow went up, but she barely had time to do anything else before Ariza's voice sounded in her ear, making her jump a little bit- she'd forgotten about the earbuds.

"Please keep your head upright for the next minute. Do not shake around. This will not harm you."

"What will not-?" Jesse's question was cut off and answered simultaneously when something thudded onto her head, coming down over her eyes so that everything was pitch black. She nearly jumped, but at the last second remembered Ariza's warning and froze stock still. She didn't know what would happen if she _did_ move, but she wasn't ready to risk it being something bad.

A moment of nothing but darkness and soft whirring in her ears, and the odd feeling of... tilting?

And then something appeared in the darkness.

 _Name?_

Almost as soon as it was onscreen, it was replaced by another message: _N/A for this round._

 _Welcome, Jesse._

 _Appearance?_

 _N/A for this round._

Jesse's picture flickered into being for a moment, a window nearly opening before closing itself and the picture blinking out of sight. Jesse could barely keep track of everything. It was honestly a little dizzying.

More things began to click and whir, a rapid succession of images switching and clicking into place on the side.

 _Touch: OK._

 _Sight: OK._

 _Audio: OK._

 _Taste: OK._

 _Smell: OK._

The moment everything was clicked in on the side, they swiped off.

And then everything was a little too bright, Jesse making a soft sound as she raised her hand to block her eyes, the long sleeve on her arm sliding down a bit-

Wait.

She was wearing a t-shirt, wasn't she?

Jesse blinked the sunlight- yes, _sunlight_ out of her eyes, looking down at her outfit, eyes widening as she realized that her sleeve was, indeed, long and almost breezy, a nice shade of bluish gray. Once it reached her waist, the shirt clinched slightly before flowing down to her ankles in a loose, gray-blue dress with a small apron over it. Her hair was the same, but otherwise she'd changed into what looked very much like a villager's dress.

"What the-?"

Jesse swiveled to see Aiden immediately to her left, pinching the sleeve of his white shirt, the blue sewn vest over said shirt complementing the brown pants he was wearing. He also had a weird sort of hat.

"Oh... okay, this is... um. Hm." Turning, Jesse could see Mevia on her right- two 'spaces' away- adjusting the sleeve of her own dress, which unlike Jesse's, was mostly red. Except the lower half of the dress was black.

Actually, her outfit looked very similar to what she usually wore, except the waist was clinched a little more and looked almost awkward to wear.

Ivor abruptly faded into existence a moment later, right next to Jesse, wearing an outfit somewhat similar to Aiden's, except that his vest was brown, and his pants were a _very_ dark brown instead of the shade of brown Aiden's was wearing. He blinked down at his own outfit, then over at Jesse, who was blinking up at him rather innocently. He looked almost taken aback.

"Uh..."

"Yeah, I don't know how this is..." Jesse's voice petered out as the sunlight's glare finally faded away enough to reveal the rest of the area.

They were currently all standing in a very large circle, what looked like a town square surrounding them with shacks and village houses surrounding the area. Trees interspersed the area, most of them on the edge of the village, and there were carts, barrels, crates, you say it, even a low wall in some areas.

Ivor's own dark blue eyes widened, and a strange smile twitched at his lips.

"Fascinating..."

"Yeah, I'm still surprised at how good of a job our team did."

Aiden flinched as Ariza appeared in the space between him and Stella, Stella starting and almost ripping the sleeve of her own purple-sleeved dress. Ariza wore a simple black robe that looked a bit like the one that death wore, except that the edges were rimmed with pink and the pink shimmered slightly whenever she moved. The hood was flipped back too, and Ariza's hair looked the same as it had on the TV screen the night before.

"Well, I'm glad, if... not surprised to see that everyone's here." Ariza inclined her head, a pleasant smile on her face. "Everyone ready to start the game?"

Nobody shouted 'yes'.

But nobody shouted 'no', either.

Ariza waited, before a smirk crept over her face. "Guys, when I ask that, I'm _actually_ asking to make sure you're ready. I don't want to start the game if somebody still needs to check their role."

A general murmur that they were all ready.

Ariza nodded. " _There_ we go, that's something at least. Also, fun fact- you can check your wristband at any time. When you're in the game, you can't see other people's wristband screens- this way you can't get anybody's role."

Instantly, a huge wave of people flicking their wristbands and bringing up the screens ensued, Ariza shifting her weight and patiently waiting for everyone. Jesse glanced at Aiden, who was looking at his wristband. His screen _should_ have been extremely obvious to her from her position, but she currently couldn't see anything at all, except that he had it up.

Once everybody had satisfied this curiosity, Ariza tilted her head. " _Now_ is everyone ready?"

A general mumble.

"Alright, great." Ariza cleared her throat, adopting a mild, cheerful tone. "Welcome to a quaint little village full of very interesting people. It's located kind of in the middle of nowhere, but everyone's so friendly and nice and everyone just moves in whenever they find it convenient to just have somewhere out of the way to live." Ariza pauses, knowing that all eyes are fixated on her from where they're all standing at their podiums.

"So, let's all introduce ourselves to each other. Shall we?"

* * *

 **A/N: O o f**

 **Sorry for lack of updates, I've been busy and my schedule got all thrown out of whack. Plus I have a summer class... wah -_-**

 **Let's bring back the RQTC!**

 **RQTC: What's your favorite video game? Indie, commercial, whatever.**

 **Mine is... well, Minecraft: Story Mode xD Either that or Professor Layton.**

 **Responses to reviews!**

 **TheAmberShadow: (shrugs) I guess we'll never know. / That's true, but Jesse would be even more flustered if that came up. Trust me, though, it WILL come up. Just not until after this game xD / Hehehe xD / Indeed, those are fantastic strategies. / Ohhh boy. That's a fun story. Originally, my original username was something like Althea Ezerin (back when I was... like... 12 or 13) and I like writing stories. Eventually I got bored and wanted to change it, so I kept the A name (but changed it to Arima because I was into ghosts back then), and my favorite Pokemon at the time was Lucario, so I just took off the O. Eventually, I wanted to type something in my Quotev username (I think it was 'Arima Lucari is praying for Paris') but it wouldn't fit, so I needed to shorten the username. What I did was I changed one letter of Arima (guess which one) and took off the 'ri' so that it'd fit. Behold, Ariza Luca was born xD / Thanks!**

 **homeworkoverload: Pffft, nice xD / Thank you! / Haha, I just got tired of saying 'Mafia or Werewolf' and mashed them up xD / Jesse's a total cinnamon roll, haha. / That... doesn't sound like a very good friend.**

 **LunarTheMooncake: Haha, yeah. xD / (thumbs up)**

 **AquaK13: Oh, yeah, she'd do much better than the blonde thing we have in office right now -_- / (laughs) Yeah, it kinda sucks. / It's really a lot of luck that you have to deal with. / Oh yes, that's always fun xD / I never focus on looks; I just focus on what people are saying xD / It's sort of the 'Ultimate' version, so... a bit different xD**

 **CremeDeLaMeme: In this case, the 'teams' are only set up to determine how many points you get- if most of your team are murderers, and the villagers win, you just wouldn't get that many points. But yes, that can happen xD**

 **J.M.M.: True that.**

 **LittleAngelbun: (thumbs up)**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	8. Intros START!

There were a few moments of silence, before Ariza clapped her hands together, looking rather cheerful despite the lack of response.

She was... still taller than Jesse. (Then again, most everyone was.) Actually, she was about an _inch_ taller than Aiden, and seemed to be beating out a few of the more average-height competitors.

Definitely nowhere near Petra or Axel's height, though. _They_ were really tall.

"Great. We'll start with Stella-" Ariza nodded at Stella, the purple-dressed woman blinking almost in owlish surprise at her, before gesturing in a vague circle around them. "- and move around the area. Sound good?"

Another general mumble as everyone made agreeing sounds. Jesse just made an absentminded 'mm-hm' and looked around, still amazed as to how it felt like she was outside. A bird fluttered by.

"For the interest of time, please just state your name and give a quick reason that you live out here in this rural, remote village that's about a hundred miles away from everyone and everything involving technology and nonsense," Ariza said, a slightly larger smile forming on her face, "and remember- while you don't have to do a backstory-slash-reason _now_ , it's good practice for when doing so or _not_ doing so could potentially cost you points."

A short pause, before she winked and pointed to Stella. "Alright, Stella, your turn."

Stella blinked, before raising her hand and giving a faint wave, looking rather taken aback at the sudden introduction. "Uh... well, I'm Stella. Er, I moved to this lovely village because, because..." Her hazel eyes darted around nervously, apparently having left her speechless at the lack of a real response.

Jesse gave a tiny wave, apparently managing to catch her attention because Stella's eyes snapped to Jesse in the span of a millisecond.

Jesse raised her hand and made a motion like she was patting a llama or a cat. Or Reuben. Boy, he loved being petted.

Stella's tense shoulders loosened, and a rather pleasant smile came over her face. "Er, I have a pet llama. Her name is Lluna. _Beautiful_ llama. Prettier than any other pet you can imagine." She lightly flicked some of her blonde hair over her shoulder. "She didn't much like the city, so I felt like a rural area'd be more beneficial for her."

Ariza gave Stella what looked to be encouraging nod while, behind Aiden, Jesse shot her a big grin and a thumbs up. "Alright, now... how about you, good ma'am?"

Harper cleared her throat. "Uh, well, my name's Harper. Pleasure to meet everyone." She gave a polite nod before continuing, "and I moved to this lovely town because... I've always liked quieter areas. Plus the climate's nicer than where I used to live."

Lukas gave a weak little wave when all eyes switched to him. "Hi, I'm Lukas. I moved here because..." He stammered for a moment, looking stuck. It was both sort of amusing... and kind of scary to see the usually calm, collected Lukas looking totally tongue-tied.

"Be... cause I really like writing." Lukas cleared his throat, looking surprised at the response he'd come up with. "I like writing books and... stories and stuff, and... I felt like a more rural landscape would help provide more fodder than a crowded area."

"Valid. Okay, how 'bout you, Romeo?" Ariza smiled pleasantly at the brilliantly-red-haired man, who looked startled at the transition.

"Oh, er... I'm Romeo. I moved... here... because..." A short moment of pause as he tried to think of a good reason. "Because I've always wanted to live a normal life in a quiet rural village of Nowhere in the middle of nowhere. Yeah. That sounds about right."

Xara quietly snorted into her hand from where she was standing next to Cassie Rose, wearing... yep, she had on an orange dress with purple pinstripes. An interesting fashion choice. Then again, it looked nice on her, so who was Jesse to judge.

Petra lifted her hand into a wave, shifting uncomfortably in... wait, Petra was wearing a white shirt, a blue-and-black vest over it, and dark brown pants like Ivor's. Like the guy's outfits. And not a girl's.

What?! That was _so_ unfair. This dress wasn't exactly comfortable.

"I'm Petra, I moved here because I heard that there was a little town out in the middle of nowhere that needed a resident go-getter and I had the skills required, so here I am."

Isa's... outfit had actually remained the same for the most part. Just that she had an apron on and her robe was actually a part of the dress she was wearing instead. "My name is Isa, I... came here because I wanted to raise my chicken in a calm environment."

"I'm Stacy, I came here because I heard there were _lots of dogs_ in the area and I'm _in_ for that."

Ariza's chuckle was friendly and cheerful at the enthusiasm. "Nice. And yes. Plenty of wolves to be tamed in this place, Stacy, don't you worry."

Stacy pumped her fist in the air as Dan picked up, "Er, I'm Dan, and I'm here at this village to visit my friends Lizzie, Stampy, Stacy, and Sparklez."

Several people snorted a little at his intro. Well, it was a valid response.

Milo scratched his head, nearly upsetting his hat. "I'm Milo, and I'm here because... I enjoy building things, and... I felt that it'd be less of a bother to people if I built in a rural area with fewer buildings."

"I'm Cam- I'm Cam- I, u-uh-" Cam, the young lady who looked near-terrified at being addressed, adjusted her pale yellow sleeve, looking very much like she wanted to dive under a crate and hide. "I ca-came here be-because I-I don't han-handle people well so- so, so uh I felt like- I felt like it'd be better to- yeah." After stammering this out, she promptly looked down at the floor.

Otto's turn. He was wearing... well, not robes. Pretty much the same outfit as all the guys (plus Petra) were wearing. "My name's Otto, and... I came here because I felt there was a need to enforce _some_ rules in this town."

"Hey there squishies!" Porkchop gave a (frankly terrifying) grin at everyone. To Jesse's surprise, they still had on their pig head and facial makeup. And their outfit was... it was a mix between the female's tops and the men's pants and shoes. So... that didn't clear up their gender. Well, okay. Looks like they were non-binary. Jesse could get with that. "The name's Porkchop. Came here to have some fun!"

"Fair," Ariza said cheerfully.

"Um..." Olivia tucked a strand of black hair behind her ear, the hair ignoring her attempt and simply popping back out with a curly bounce. "I'm Olivia, and... I felt like we needed _some_ technology here, so I'm here to bring enough of it in that it helps everyone's lives a bit, but not enough that it takes over everything."

Ellegaard blinked at her, before glancing at the crowd of waiting eyes. "I'm Ellegaard... and..." She glanced at Olivia, before giving the younger girl a light pat on the back. "I came because Olivia wanted to bring technology here and I thought it was a good idea too."

Jesse could swear that she saw the virtual wolf roaming in the house past those two whimper and flatten his ears when Olivia put her hands to her mouth, looking for all intents and purposes like she was squealing even though Jesse couldn't hear it.

"I'm Soren, and I'm here because..." Soren paused, before dramatically throwing his arms wide to encompass everyone and everything. "I felt as though this town could use the gift of _song_."

Instantly the entire Order, Ivor, and several other people (Jesse managed to spot Isa, Cassie, Otto, Mevia, and Hadrian) all groaned loudly.

Jesse just smothered a startled laugh. Soren _was_ a little quirky from what she'd heard, though she'd never heard of his apparent love of singing. Well, why not.

Hadrian went next, looking very irritated from Soren's introduction. "I'm Hadrian. I'm here because-" he cut himself off for a moment, as if he was thinking, before he let out an irritated huff. "Because I'm here."

Ariza arched her eyebrow at the very lackluster backstory. "Hm, not playing along I see. Ah well." And then she promptly moved on.

"Er, hello! My name is Stampy, and, uh..." The boy, who looked rather odd without his hood on his head, tagged at his orange sleeve. "I, er, I came here because I like parrots, and I heard that along with dogs, there were plenty of parrots here." And he gave a slightly nervous laugh that made Jesse's eyebrow shoot up- she hadn't heard him laugh before.

I mean it was a nice laugh, she wasn't saying that it wasn't.

"Yo, 'sup! I'm Nell, radical to meet you dudes, and I'm just here to chillax, y'know. Take a break from... crazy stuff." Nell looked _weird_ in a traditional dress. It wasn't in a rude way, I mean she looked _fine_ , but Jesse had already gotten used to seeing her in a green-and-gray jumpsuit and not a long, bright green dress with an apron. Nell didn't seem to mind the dress, though, unlike how some of the other girls were surreptitiously picking at their sleeves or inspecting their skirts. (Mevia in particular seemed to be trying to figure out why the waist of her dress was suddenly rather pinched.)

Facemeat ( _good lord, he's gigantic_ ) had an interesting reason about... wanting to go on vacation (interestingly enough, his clothing hadn't changed much), Maya shrugged and said she liked quiet areas more than noisy ones, Radar stammered before making up an excuse that his boss had wanted to take a break, so he was taking a break too (his eyes flickered to Jesse when he said this), the Warden said he was tired of working in a building all day, and Slab shrugged and had some reason about wanting to sit in a quiet house to read books.

"Yeah, I feel you there," Ariza replied cheerfully.

Binta said she'd lived there since she was a little kid (which made Ariza smile brightly), Cassie fiddled with the sleeve of her dress uncomfortably as she said something about wanting to live in a smaller house for a while, Xara flat-out just said it was quieter so she could sleep ("Brah, I _so_ feel you there!" Nell beamed at her from about... twelve people away), Oxblood said he wanted to take care of his mooshroom, Magnus said with a big grin that people cared less if he blew TNT up in the rural areas (which then caused Xara to halfheartedly 'in-character' shoot back that if he woke her up at a stupid time of night she was going to throw an axe at his head, and Axel cheerfully said that since Jesse and Olivia both lived there he'd thought 'why not'.

Ariza gave a light laugh. "Well... I mean, I guess that makes sense too." She was mostly quiet through the introductions, nodding with a smile at each one as she seemed to be noting them down- Jesse could see that her screen was up.

Sparklez said that he'd thought it be fun to live in a quiet village, Nurm said something in rapid-fire Villagerese which Jack (who was right next to him) promptly translated that he'd said that he'd moved from a place called the Mushroom Archipelago because he wanted to live in a rural area and not by the ocean, Jack then promptly introducing himself and stating that his reason was that he'd lived in a place that didn't have very good... memories attached to it.

Jesse noticed that Ariza shifted and rested her chin on her hand, a more sympathetic look entering her eyes when he said that. She didn't clarify though, and the introductions went on.

Gill cheerfully remarked that he'd always liked sitting in quiet little places, Clutch shrugged and said something about... a bigger variety of fresh food? (Jesse was _pretty_ sure that was her reasoning, anyway.) Em simply leaned on her podium (which were all very nice and made out of smooth wood. They didn't exactly hurt to lean on, either.) and muttered something about wanting a break from her very boring life, Soup exuberantly said that she (she? Was Soup a she? Jesse was _pretty_ sure.) and Val co-owned a llama and they'd wanted to raise the llama in better conditions than a city or something.

Anthony said he'd always liked making cookies and he felt like it'd be fun to make them with fresher ingredients, Gabriel said that he was tired and wanted to take a break from fighting and stuff all the time, Reginald shrugged and said he'd heard there was a town in the middle of nowhere that needed a town guard, Lizzie mildly chirped something about hidden treasure, and Val gave the same reasoning as Soup. (It would've been weird if she'd had a _different_ reason, Jesse supposed.)

And then it was Mevia's turn.

"Er... I'm Mevia. I'm here because I..." Mevia hesitated for a moment. Jesse thought she was going to pull what Hadrian did and just not come up with a backstory, but then she smoothly went into, "My friend's kid lives here, and they asked me to do them a favor and watch the kid."

"Neat! Who's the kid?" Ariza gave Mevia an almost too-pleasant grin, leaning on her own podium with a friendly twinkle in her eyes.

"Jesse," Mevia said automatically, before blinking.

Jesse blinked back, while Ivor's eyebrow went up and he shifted to glance at Mevia. He didn't actually show _surprise_ on his face, but Jesse was willing to bet that he felt it. Honestly, from Mevia's facial expression, Jesse was pretty sure _she_ was surprised that she'd given that reason.

"I'm Ivor, and..." The man paused, his lips thinning into a line as he considered his 'backstory', before segueing quite smoothly into "I make potions. Potion ingredients in rural areas are richer and give better effects when harvested, so I moved out to this small town."

Ariza gave him a pleasant nod and a grin. "A fair reason."

And then it was Jesse's turn.

"Uh... hi! I'm Jesse. I moved here because I have a pet pig named Reuben and he's _really_ cute, but... he... also doesn't really like going into crowded areas, so I felt like living in a quieter area would help him with that!" Jesse's eyes darted to the young woman at her podium, but Ariza apparently approved of the reason because she gave a pleasant smile and nod.

Finally, Aiden shifted before clearing his throat. "My name's Aiden. I moved here because I... like... ocelots." He cleared his throat again, crossing his arms. "I kinda wanted to see if I could find one out here."

"Well, there're plenty, so feel free to check around!" Ariza replied pleasantly and rather cheerfully. "If you are still uncertain about the role you have received, feel free to send me a message if and when you're 'awake' and let me know what you're confused about."

She tilted her head a moment later, measuring how the sun had already started dipping behind several of the houses in the area. "Well, this took all day, _literally_ , so why doesn't everyone go to sleep for the night and we'll continue in the morning," Ariza said mildly, leaning on a fencepost and smiling enigmatically at them.

Jesse barely had time to blink at her in confusion before everyone and everything slowly faded into darkness. There were several exclamations of surprise, but then the sound in Jesse's ears also faded out. It was like the world around Jesse had disappeared.

And then the robed figure of Ariza, with her pink hair and eyes and edges of her robe practically standing out like a beacon in the darkness, clapping her hands together and giving Jesse a pleasant smile.

"So, the Mystic Seer. You're not the average run-of-the-mill Seer or an Aura Seer, no, no, you're _really_ good at your job. Maybe you went to Seer college. Who knows." Ariza's lighthearted voice managed to soothe Jesse's somewhat jangly nerves.

Alright, _really_ jangly nerves.

"Anyway, when you go to sleep you can _see_ things. You see things about the people around you in _stunning_ detail, like what they do at night, what they've done in the past, what they _can_ do, et cetera et cetera, it's _super_ cool, if I do say so myself." Ariza gave a cheerful grin and bounced on the balls of her feet for a moment.

And then Ariza crossed her arms, giving Jesse a grin that was both the nicest thing Jesse had seen all day so far... and sent chills crawling up Jesse's spine at how excited it was.

"So. Who would you like to have a look at tonight?"

* * *

 **A/N: And first audience choice of this story. Recommended person to 'investigate?'**

 **(Alternatively, send a list of three people. Top votes either get investigated, killed, or... something else.)**

 **I apologize for the giant 'intro' chapter- but we should probably get used to them because they're easy to write and they've gotta do intros throughout the entire 'game' series, as towards the end they'll be doing roles.**

 **So as some of you may already know, I'm in my senior year of high school, and planning to apply to art school. And to do so, I have to get my portfolio ready. As of right now... I have little to nothing I'd be comfortable with showing colleges when I apply; not to mention that these art schools are REALLY high level. (Except for one but I still want to take that one really seriously.) I'm also working on Fata Morgana (formerly known as Phantasmagoria) and a few other projects.**

 **I'm... not ready at all, so from now until sometime around early December, I will probably rarely surface on here. (Not that I've been doing that recently, sorry! I've been busy.) When I DO come on, updates will be very sporadic. Please don't be surprised if I don't reappear on here until after that early December deadline- I am going to be _snowed under_ with portfolio preparation, not to mention my last year of high school.**

 **But thank you all for following these stories- I'll hope you'll stick with me through (more) months of inactivity!**

 **RQTC: What do you all want to be when you're a full-fledged adult?**

 **I... have no idea, really xD**

 **Responses to reviews!**

 **LunartheMooncake: I have a headcanon about Lluna spitting; if you can find it on Tumblr I applaud you xD / Hehe, these _are_ the MCSM characters we're talking about xD / Yis :3**

 **SoundMusician60: Yeah, I'm definitely pretty happy too. x3 / Nice!**

 **homeworkoverload: What exactly do you not understand? Please specify so I can explain later xD / (shrugs) Maybe. Who knows? He's definitely pretty scared of her at the moment, though. / Porkchop is wearing a girl's 'top' and the boy's pants, since they have no gender. And Petra defies the rules and wears pants anyway xD / That's good :3 / No, no he is not, and I don't know xD**

 **TheAmberShadow: Heh, that's fair. / It is! / Lluna spitting on Jesse? It's actually related to a headcanon I have, but that's buried somewhere in my Tumblr xD / It doesn't, but it was a joke that popped to mind while I was writing. I was trying to figure out a good thing to call it and my brain instantly went through 'Game Cube', 'X-Box', and 'Play Station.' PlayStation won out xD / Yeah! Think colonial America, I guess xD / For the first week you have 'teams' that are not related to the teams you were assigned; for the second week one or two person(s) from each team is put in a game of Mafiawolf together to avoid overcrowding, and the teams can provide help to get their team maximum points.**

 **Guest: That's neat! Undertale's great, and I've heard Breath of the Wild is very good too.**

 **Toni42: Yeah, pretty much! It'll go fine, nothing'll go terribly wrong (outside of the game. Inside the game it's gonna be chaos xD)**

 **AquaEclipse: Nice! / Yeah, pretty much. / I'm glad you're here!**

 **RougeGamer: Red, hi! Long- long time no see. We missed you. Um, I said 'old friend' because you did... you know, stop contacting us. As well as all your friends. You all just... cut contact so quickly that we didn't know what happened, and could really only assume that you didn't want to be friends anymore.**

 **Well... looks like that's all for now.**

 **See ya, so long, and g'bye! I hope to see you guys when I'm back from my hiatus (again).**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


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